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THE   CONGO 


A  REPORT  OF 
THE  COMMISSION  OF  ENQUIRY 

APPOINTED  BY 

THE  CONGO  FREE  STATE  GOVERNMENT 

A   TRANSLATION 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW   YORK  AND   LONDON 

Ube  Tftnicfterbocher  press 

1906 


Th^^ 


TJI'to 


A 


Copyright,  1906 

BY 

JAMES  H.  GORE 


Ube  ftniclierbocfcer  pvcM,  flew  JQotfi 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


PAGB 


Introductory i 

I — The  Land  Regime  and  the  Freedom 

OF  Trade 17 

II — Taxation 26 

III — Military  Expeditions      ...        .87 

IV — The  Concessions 104 

V — Depopulation 115 

VI — The  Abandoned  Infants        .       .       .120 
VII — Recruiting  of  Soldiers  and  Workmen     130 

VIII — ^Justice 146 

Institution  of  a  Committee      .       .       .       ,     169 


328318 


Sire, 

We  have  the  honour  to  lay  before  Your  Majesty 
the  Report  which  the  Commission  appointed  to  in- 
vestigate the  State  territories,  submitted  to  the  Gov- 
ernment on  the  30th  of  October,  1905.  .    / 

This  Report  is  also  referred  to  the  Governor  Gen-^ 
eral  for  examination. 

We  have,  in  addition,  the  honour  to  suggest  that 
Your  Majesty  name  a  Commission  to  study  the  va- 
rious suggestions  made  by  the  Commission  of  En- 
quiry. If  Your  Majesty  accepts  our  proposition, 
we  beg  that  you  will  affix  your  signature  to  the 
accompanying  Decree  naming  the  members  of  the 
Commission. 

We  are,  with  the  most  profound  respect, 
Sire, 

Your  Majesty's 

Most  humble,  obedient  and  faithful 

Servants  and  Subjects 

Chevalier  de  Cuvelier^ 
H.  Droogmans, 

LlEBRECHTS. 

Brussels,  October  the  31st,  1905. 


REPORT  OF  THE   ENQUIRY 
COMMISSION 


INTRODUCTORY 

To  THE  Secretary  of  State 
OF  the  Congo  Free  State. 

Mr,  Secretary  of  State: 

In  obedience  to  the  instructions  contained  in 
Article  5  of  the  Decree  of  July  23,  1904,  we  have  the 
honour  to  submit  to  you  a  Report  upon  the  results 
of  the  enquiry  that  we  conducted  in  the  Congo. 

We  had  for  our  mission  to  "  See  if,  in  certain 
parts  of  the  territory,  the  natives  were  subjected 
to  ill  treatment  either  by  private  individuals  or  by 
State  Agents,  to  point  out  practical  means  of  better- 
ment and  to  formulate,  in  case  the  enquiry  reveals 
such  abuses,  suggestions  as  to  the  best  means  of  put- 
ting an  end  to  the  same,  having  in  view  the  welfare 
of  the  inhabitants  and  the  good  government  of  the 
territories." 

To  aid  in  accomplishing  this,  the  powers  be- 
stowed upon  the  State  Attorney  were  conferred 
upon  us.     In  accordance  with  the  first  Article  of 


;  o  X  s  ^:  ^,  7 


«•  c  f   t         • 


2  '     ^  '  ^     ''''The  Congo 

the  Decree  referred  to  above,  we  were  to  conduct 
this  enquiry  in  conformity  with  the  instructions  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.  In  your  dispatch  of  Sept. 
5,  1904,  you  informed  us  that  "  The  Government 
had  no  other  instructions  to  give  the  Commission 
than  to  devote  all  its  efforts  to  the  complete  and 
entire  discovery  of  the  truth.  It  intends  to  leave  the 
Commission,  with  this  in  view,  its  complete  liberty, 
its  individuality,  and  its  initiative.  The  Govern- 
ment will  depart  from  this  principle  of  non-inter- 
vention in  one  respect  only,  that  is,  to  give  to  its 
officials  and  agents  of  all  rank  formal  and  explicit 
orders  to  give  to  the  Commission  assistance  and  co- 
operation without  reserve  in  order  to  help  it  in  the 
accomplishment  of  its  task.''  You  added:  "The 
Decree  of  July  23,  1904,  in  conferring  upon  the 
members  of  the  Commission  the  powers  attributed 
by  law  to  the  State  Attorney,  gave  to  it  without  limit 
the  authority  to  receive  testimony  of  all  sorts;  the 
Government  ascribes  to  the  Commission  no  limit 
at  all,  neither  as  to  the  fields  of  its  investigation, 
nor  as  to  the  duration  of  its  appointment,  and  the 
legislative  provisions  have  been  made  to  ensure  sin- 
cerity and  security  to  all  witnesses  who  may  appear 
before  the  Commission." 

You  made  allusion  to  the  Decree  of  July  15,  1904, 
which  allowed  the  State  Attorney  to  compel  un- 
willing witnesses  to  appear  before  the  Commission 
and  made  applicable  the  penalties  prescribed  by 
Articles  50  and  51  of  the  Code  to  any  case  where 


Introductory  3 

the  witnesses  might  be  persecuted  because  of  their 
testimony. 

The  Commission  left  Antwerp  the  15th  day  of 
September,  1904,  and  arrived  at  Boma  on  October  • 
5th,  1904. 

On  the  following  morning  the  Governor  General 
addressed  to  all  the  chiefs  of  service,  territorial  gov- 
ernors, commandants  and  other  officials  as  well  as 
State  Agents  a  copy  of  your  dispatch  of  September 
5th,  adding  a  circular  from  which  we  make  the 
following  extracts: 

"  Obedient  to  the  assurances  which  have  been 
given  to  this  Commission,  I  command  our  officials  and 
agents,  to  whatever  service  they  may  belong  and  what- 
ever may  be  their  rank,  to  give  to  the  Commission 
without  reserve  all  possible  assistance,  not  only  in 
regard  to  material  things,  but  also  to  afford  it  their 
most  efficient  co-operation  in  everything  connected  with 
the  task  which  has  been  confided  to  it. 

"  The  Government,  in  its  great  desire  to  see  the 
Commission  test  the  accuracy  of  the  charges  which 
have  been  made  in  regard  to  acts  of  ill-treatment  to 
which  the  natives  have  been  subjected,  has  given  to 
the  Commission  the  widest  authority  for  investigation 
and  research.  Not  only  will  all  the  officials  and  all 
the  State  Agents  whom  the  Commission  may  judge 
necessary  to  hear  be  expected  to  appear  and  testify 
before  it,  but  they  must  respond  to  all  requisitions 
which  it  may  make  in  the  matter  of  the  submission  of 
all  administrative  and  judicial  documents  concerning 
the  object  of  its  mission  and  which  it  may  think  useful 


4  The  Congo 

for  its  information.  They  have  the  authority  which  the 
law  grants,  in  general,  to  the  State  Attorney :  right  of 
visiting,  of  search,  of  seizure,  of  demands  for  inter- 
preters, translators,  physicians  and  experts,  of  calls 
upon  the  constabulatory,  of  arrest  and  detention,  with- 
out being  molested  or  hindered,  and  all  of  our  officials 
and  agents  shall  accord  to  it  the  most  energetic  and 
efficient  assistance." 

Again,  the  Prosecuting  Attorney,  upon  the  re- 
quest of  the  Governor  General,  addressed  to  his 
deputies  a  circular  in  which  he  gave  them  instruc- 
tions to  see  to  it  that  all  acts  of  subornation  or 
attempts  at  suborning  of  witnesses  be  immediately 
suppressed,  also  that  no  damage  be  permitted  to 
their  person  or  their  property. 

We  hasten  to  say  that  these  instructions  were 
literally  followed. 

During  our  entire  stay  in  the  Congo,  we  received 
at  the  hands  of  all  officials  and  State  Agents,  as 
well  as  from  commercial  agents  and  missionaries 
of  all  creeds,  the  fullest  co-operation.  All  the  docu- 
ments which  the  Commission  deemed  necessary  to 
consult  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  discovery  of  truth, 
such  as  reports  of  a  political  character,  administra- 
tive or  judicial  reports,  copies  of  letters,  and  private 
correspondence,  were  upon  our  request  immediately 
furnished  and  in  many  instances  volunteered  with- 
out it  being  necessary  in  a  single  instance  to  resort 
to  the  use  of  the  authority  conferred  upon  us. 

The  Commission  remained  in  Boma  from  the  5th 


Introductory  5 

until  the  23rd  of  October.  While  there  it  heard 
many  witnesses,  judges,  officials,  missionaries,  re- 
siding in  Boma  or  during  their  passage  through 
that  locality. 

It  made  many  demands  upon  the  local  govern- 
ment for  information;  it  addressed  to  all  the  depu- 
ties of  the  Prosecuting  Attorney  a  series  of  ques- 
tions in  regard  to  such  ill  treatment  of  the  natives 
as  had  come  to  their  knowledge,  and  the  results  of 
such  persecutions,  the  tax  in  kind,  the  amount  of 
enforced  labour  demanded  of  each  native  and  the 
means  employed  for  enforcing  the  demand,  the  ap- 
plication of  the  decree  of  November  the  i8th,  1903, 
in  regard  to  levies,  the  remuneration  paid  to  the 
natives,  military  expeditions,  the  system  of  forest 
guards,  the  obedience  to  the  law  in  the  matter  of 
firearms,  the  employment  of  soldiers  and  labourers. 
We  also  asked,  in  a  general  way,  that  the  deputies 
point  out  to  us  any  facts  that  could  be  of  service 
to  us  in  the  accomplishment  of  our  mission. 

We  visited  the  school  colony,  the  prison,  the  hos- 
pital for  the  blacks,  the  soldier  camps  and  the  village 
of  workmen. 

The  Commission  went  at  once  to  Matadi  where 
sessions  were  held  on  October  24th;  on  the  26th 
it  visited  the  mission  of  Kisantu  and  from  the  after- 
noon of  the  26th  to  October  the  31st  it  remained 
in  Leopoldville  where  it  sat  daily. 

On  the  first  of  November  the  members  embarked, 
and  ascending  the  river,  stopped  at  Tshumbiri,  at 


6  The  Congo 

Nopolenge-Bolobo,  where  they  remained  from  the 
7th  to  the  1 2th  of  November  to  hear  the  natives 
who  had  come  from  Lake  Leopold  II,  at  Lukolela 
Mission,  Lukolela  plantation,  and  at  Irebu.  The 
Commission  then  visited  Bikoro,  sitting  November 
20th,  and  Ikoko  where  it  remained  in  session  on 
the  1 8th,  19th,  2 1st  and  22nd  of  November. 

After  that  the  Commission  went  to  Coquilhat- 
ville,  remaining  six  days,  from  the  25th  to  the  30th 
of  November.  During  the  sojourn  at  Coquilhat- 
ville,  the  members  visited  the  missions  of  Bamania 
and  of  Bolengi.  On  December  ist,  it  left  for  Lu- 
longa  and  Abir,  sailed  up  the  Lulonga  river  and  its 
tributaries  the  Lopori  and  the  Mirangi.  In  this 
vicinity  sessions  were  held  at  Lulonga,  Baringa, 
Bongandanga,  Basankusu,  Ikau,  Bonginda,  and 
Mampoko. 

Likewise  an  investigation  was  made  in  the  village 
of  Wala  near  Lulonga  and  in  the  towns  of  Boieka 
and  Bokotola  in  the  Bonginda  region.  Upon  leav- 
ing Lulonga,  January  the  sth,  the  Commission 
visited  in  succession  Monsembe,  New  Antwerp, 
Upoto,  Lisala,  Basaka,  La  Romee,  Yakusu  and 
Stanleyville. 

Leaving  the  last  named  place  on  January  26th, 
Boma  was  reached  on  February  13th  where  various 
matters  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Commission 
up  to  the  2 1  St  of  February,  the  date  of  departure 
for  Europe. 

The  Commission  received  while  in   Congo  the 


Introductory  7 

statements  of  judges,  officials,  directors  and  agents 
of  companies,  of  missionaries,  both  Protestant  and 
Catholic,  and  especially  of  natives. 

In  general,  it  held  two  sessions  a  day,  in  the 
morning  from  eight  o'clock  until  noon,  and  in  the 
afternoon  from  three  o'clock  until  seven  o'clock.  In 
this  way  during  the  course  of  its  stay  it  was  able  to 
hear  and  record  the  testimony  of  several  hundred 
witnesses.  It  heard  all  who  presented  themselves 
to  make  complaints  or  to  furnish  information;  it 
likewise  summoned  all  people  who  were  thought 
able  to  furnish  light.  In  all  the  posts  and  in  all  the 
villages  where  the  necessities  of  the  journey,  the 
need  of  food  or  wood  compelled  them  to  stop,  the 
salaried  workmen,  and  the  natives  of  the  villages 
were  questioned  and  a  record  was  made  of  all  state- 
ments of  interest. 

Whenever  it  was  possible,  the  adjoining  villages 
were  visited,  where  audiences  were  held  and  at  each 
of  these  visits,  made  without  escort,  the  population 
were  permitted  to  freely  speak  to  the  members  of 
the  Commission,  who  were  always  accompanied  by 
their  interpreters. 

The  Commission  visited  the  hospitals,  the  prisons, 
the  schools,  colonies,  the  missions  and  their  schools, 
the  dormitories,  plantations,  etc. 

The  Commission  desires  to  state  that  from  the 
1st  of  November,  the  date  of  its  departure  for  the 
Upper  Congo,  all  of  the  sessions  were  public.  This 
decision  was  reached  after  having  carefully  balanced 


8  The  Congo 

the  advantages  and  inconveniences  of  public  sittings. 
If,  on  the  one  hand,  this  publicity  could  have  the 
effect  of  hindering,  in  certain  cases,  the  investiga- 
tion or  the  revealment  of  truth,  on  the  other  hand 
there  is  no  doubt  but  that  it  gave  credence  to  the 
statements  of  the  Commission. 

The  testimony  of  the  natives  was  translated  by 
black  interpreters  who  knew,  in  addition  to  their 
own  dialect,  the  principal  commercial  language  of 
the  country.^  During  our  long  enquiry  in  the  Equa- 
torial district  we  had  the  good  fortune,  somewhat 
rare  it  seems,  to  have  at  our  disposal  a  young  black 
who  spoke  French  and  the  peculiar  language  of  the 
country,  the  Mongo.  The  accuracy  of  the  trans- 
lation made  by  these  interpreters  could  be  controlled 
by  the  missionaries  and  the  agents  of  the  companies 
or  of  the  State  who  happened  to  be  present. 

The  statements  of  the  Protestant  missionaries, 
with  three  exceptions,  were  made  in  English.  They 
were  dictated  by  the  President,  after  the  translation 
made  of  them  by  the  Secretary.  This  made  it  pos- 
sible for  each  witness  to  read  in  written  form  his 
own  testimony.  In  addition,  the  minutes  were 
given,  as  far  as  possible,  to  those  immediately  inter- 
ested to  make  sure  that  their  thoughts  were  accu- 
rately stated. 

In  every  instance  the  witness  before  signing  his 
testimony  saw  the  corrections  made  which  he  de- 
sired should  be  introduced.  Whenever  it  was 
*  Fiotte,  Bangala  and  Kiswaheli. 


Introductory  g 

deemed  desirable  the  testimony  given  in  French  was 
translated  into  English  to  enable  those  present  to 
make  such  observations  as  they  might  desire. 

The  visitors  were  invited  to  address  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Commission  such  questions  as  they 
wished  asked,  or  to  make  of  their  own  accord  any 
remarks  regarding  the  subject  under  investigation. 

Only  in  exceptional  cases,  when  the  questions  or 
observations  seemed  irrelevant,  were  they  omitted 
from  the  record.  The  enquiry,  therefore  offers 
every  possible  guarantee  since  it  was  not  only  public 
but,  as  far  as  possible,  permitted  cross-examination. 

Although  we  had  as  our  mission  the  investigation 
of  the  ill-treatment  by  the  agents  of  which  the  na- 
tives might  complain,  and  to  verify  the  evils,  still 
we  did  not  think  we  would  be  prohibited  from  point- 
ing out,  in  passing,  the  good  which  attracted  our 
attention.  Let  us  say  at  once,  while  on  the  voyage 
to  the  Congo,  the  comparison  between  the  former 
conditions,  known  by  the  reports  of  explorers,  and 
the  present  conditions  created  an  impression  of  sur- 
prise and  admiration. 

In  these  regions  which  twenty  years  ago  were 
still  plunged  in  the  most  frightful  barbarism  and 
which  had  been  crossed  by  only  a  few  whites  at  the 
cost  of  superhuman  efforts,  met  at  every  moment 
by  the  arrows  of  hostile  people;  in  these  districts 
where  the  tribes  decimated  by  the  raids  of  Arabian 
slave  dealers  fought  each  other  without  cessation 
and  without  mercy,  where  one  encountered  at  every 


lo  The  Congo 

step  the  markets  of  human  flesh  where  the  buyers 
designated  on  the  body  of  the  victim  the  part  which 
they  coveted;  where  the  funerals  of  the  village 
chiefs  were  celebrated  by  the  hecatomb  of  slaves 
whom  they  strangled  and  the  wives  and  women 
who  were  buried  alive  —  in  this  dark  and  mysterious 
continent  the  State  has  been  constituted  and  organ- 
ised with  marvellous  rapidity,  introducing  into  the 
heart  of  Africa  the  benefits  of  civilisation. 

Today  security  reigns  in  this  territory.  Most 
everywhere  the  white  who  has  not  intimated  hostile 
intentions  can  journey  without  escort  and  without 
arms.  The  slave  trade  has  disappeared,  cannibal- 
ism has  been  practically  suppressed,  pushed  back, 
or  is  in  hiding  and  sacrifices  of  human  beings  are 
rare.  The  villages,  which  call  to  mind  our  attrac- 
tive sea-side  towns,  are  numerous  along  the  banks 
of  the  great  river,  and  the  two  terminals  of  the 
Lower  Congo  Railway,  Matadi,  where  the  ocean 
steamers  arrive,  and  Leopoldville,  the  great  river- 
port  with  its  activity  and  its  warehouses,  remind 
one  of  the  industrial  cities  of  Europe.  The  rural 
lines  of  Mayumbe,  the  railway  of  the  Cataracts  built 
in  the  most  hilly  regions,  that  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
carried  to  the  heart  of  the  equatorial  belt,  the  24 
steamers  which  float  upon  the  Congo  and  its  tribu- 
taries, the  regular  service  of  the  postal  communica- 
tion, the  telegraph  lines  that  amount  to  1200  kilo- 
metres, the  hospitals  established  in  the  principal 
places,  all  of  these  things  born  of  yesterday,  give 


Introductory  1 1 

travellers  the  impression  that  they  are  in  a  country 
which  has  long  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  European 
civilisation,  and  not  in  one  which  but  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  was  totally  unknown  and  savage.  It 
makes  one  wonder  what  magic  power  or  firm  will, 
aided  by  heroic  efforts,  was  able  to  so  change  a  coun- 
try in  such  a  short  time. 

This  impression  became  still  more  marked  when 
one  saw  the  operations  of  the  government  of  the 
young  State.  With  a  limited  number  of  officials, 
the  State  has  solved  the  difficult  problem  of  oc- 
cupying and  administering  in  an  effective  manner 
its  vast  territory.  Thanks  to  the  judicious  distribu- 
tion of  its  posts,  it  has  been  able  to  come  into  con- 
tact with  practically  the  entire  native  population, 
and  rare  indeed  are  the  villages  which  fail  to  recog- 
nise today  the  authority  of  "  Boula  Matari.''  With 
all  of  these  posts,  distant  as  well  as  near,  the  Gov- 
ernment at  Boma  is  in  constant  and  regular  commu- 
nication. It  is  the  centre  to  which  information 
comes  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  from  which 
they  emanate.  The  periodic  reports  thus  received 
enable  it  to  profit  at  once  from  the  experience  of 
its  two  thousand  agents.  On  its  part,  it  lets  its 
directing  force  be  felt.  Through  the  instructions 
which  it  continually  sends  out  to  territorial  govern- 
ors, it,  profiting  by  the  ensemble  of  ideas  received, 
announces  a  programme  to  be  followed  by  all  of- 
ficials of  all  ranks.  This  unity  of  direction  one  sees 
everywhere.     The  central  machinery  of  Congolese 


12  The  Congo 

organisation  moves  with  rapidity  and  precision, 
without  cessation  and  without  shock. 

The  administration  of  justice  is  deserving  of 
praise.  Its  finest  title  to  glory  is  the  popularity 
which  the  magistracy  enjoys  amongst  the  coloured 
people. 

Neither  should  one  forget  the  considerable  work 
accomplished  at  the  same  time  by  the  missionaries 
of  all  creeds.  With  their  comfortable  quarters, 
their  chapels,  schools,  cultivated  fields,  and  shops 
they  have  made  in  many  localities  an  important 
step  towards  civilisation. 

But  this  striking  impression  did  not  cause  the 
Commission  to  lose  sight  of  the  special  purpose  of 
its  mission. 

As  we  have  said,  it  received  all  complaints,  it 
even  invited  them  and  most  carefully  investigated 
all  the  evils  of  which  the  natives  could  suffer.  Wit- 
nesses were  not  lacking.  The  rumour  of  the  arrival 
of  the  Commission  was  spread  amongst  the  blacks 
with  surprising  rapidity.  They  had  complete  con- 
fidence in  the  '*  Great  Judges  come  from  Europe  " 
to  hear  their  troubles.  Entire  villages  came  to  us 
to  make  known  their  complaints  or  their  hopes  and 
some  witnesses  made  long  journeys  to  appear  be- 
fore us. 

We  saw,  it  is  true,  only  a  part  of  the  immense 
territory  of  the  State.  But  one  must  not  imagine 
that  our  field  of  enquiry  was  limited  to  the  regions 
through  which  we  passed.     The  information   re- 


Introductory  13 

ceived  by  the  Commission  regarding  the  districts 
not  visited  was  sufficient  to  enable  it  to  form  a 
definite  opinion  as  to  conditions  in  all  parts  of  the 
State,  even  if  it  could  not  investigate  all  the  details. 
For,  however  widely  extended  might  be  the  sources 
of  testimony,  it  could  not,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
Commission,  be  either  the  most  important  or  the 
most  reliable  sort  of  information.  In  fact,  the  legal 
briefs  of  cases,  the  political  reports,  official  corres- 
pondence, reports  of  judges,  copies  of  letters  of  the 
commercial  companies  and  administrative  reports 
furnished  the  Commission  material  of  greater  value 
in  reaching  a  conclusion  than  the  testimony  of  many 
witnesses. 

One  entire  class  of  witnesses,  the  blacks,  in  spite 
of  our  efforts  to  convince  them  to  the  contrary,  was 
positive  that  the  suppression  of  certain  taxes,  es- 
pecially the  rubber  tax,  rested  upon  the  results  of 
our  enquiry  and,  consequently,  upon  their  testimony. 
We  should  add  that  the  black  of  the  Congo  has  not 
the  same  notion  of  truth  that  we  have  —  we  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  he  is  a  liar,  that  would  be  a  gratui- 
tous insult  to  him.  Truth  in  the  eyes  of  a  native  is 
not  what  is  or  has  been,  but  what  ought  to  be,  what 
he  wishes,  what  he  thinks  one  wishes  or  what  is 
expected  of  him.  More  than  that,  he  has  only  a 
very  vague  notion  of  time  and  is  totally  incapable 
of  localising  the  events  of  the  past.  He  has  no 
exact  conception  of  number  and  commits  the  most 
astonishing  errors  each  time  that  one  asks  of  him 


14  The  Congo 

a  precise  figure.  After  a  certain  time,  in  the  best 
of  faith,  he  confounds  the  deeds  of  which  he  was  a 
witness  with  those  of  which  he  has  heard  others 
speak.  Great  caution  and  unceasing  patience  are 
necessary  in  extracting  from  his  testimony  the  exact 
truth. 

We  cannot  think  of  transcribing  in  this  report 
the  hundreds  of  depositions  that  we  have  collected, 
or  even  make  an  abstract  of  them.  Without  speak- 
ing of  the  development  which  our  work  would 
assume,  considerations  of  the  greatest  importance 
prevented  the  adoption  of  that  mode  of  procedure. 
In  fact  the  most  painstaking  investigation  did  not 
enable  the  Commission  to  throw  light  upon  some 
facts  to  which  our  attention  was  called.  Many  of 
these  were  of  ancient  origin  so  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  verify  them.  In  other  cases  the  persons 
said  to  be  responsible  were  dead  or  had  left  the 
country  for  Europe. 

The  publicity  which  might  some  day  be  given  to 
our  Report  might  be  the  cause  of  an  irreparable 
prejudice  in  the  case  of  some  persons  specifically 
accused,  for  they  could  not  present  themselves  to  ex- 
plain the  charges  or  defend  themselves. 

Moreover,  the  commission  did  not  consider  that 
the  purpose  of  its  enquiry  was  to  fix  personal 
responsibility,  but  it  thought  it  was  its  duty  to  ex- 
amine the  condition  of  the  natives  rather  than  in- 
dividual facts,  and  therefore  it  restricted  its  exami- 
nation to  those  abuses  which  were  general  in  their 


Introductory  15 

character.  In  such  instances  it  investigated  the 
causes  and,  when  possible,  the  remedies. 

Consequently  when,  in  the  course  of  its  enquiry, 
it  discovered  facts  which  constituted  infraction  of 
the  law  and  might  lead  to  judicial  condemnation,  it 
investigated  them  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  form- 
ing a  general  opinion.  Certain  facts  of  this  sort 
which  demanded  prompt  repression  were  reported 
to  the  local  authorities,  who  with  the  assistance  thus 
given  will  fix  the  personal  responsibility  and  bring 
to  trial  those  who  were  culpable. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  we  could  not  enter  into  de- 
tails that  concern  the  department  of  justice  which 
alone  is  competent  to  pronounce  a  final  judgment. 

Furthermore  the  Commission  states  that  in  con- 
formity with  the  decree  that  called  it  into  existence, 
it  has  limited  its  enquiry  to  the  interests  of  the 
natives  and  that  it  disregarded  and  will  disregard 
everything  that  concerns  the  Europeans  residing  in 
the  State. 

Under  these  conditions  we  think  we  have  followed 
in  the  outline  of  the  results  of  our  investigation  the 
only  method  that  was  possible.  Without  stopping 
too  long  with  individual  facts,  we  have  grouped  the 
abuses  discovered  or  pointed  out  to  us  under  as 
many  headings,  attaching  in  this  way  to  each  effect 
the  cause,  real  or  supposed.  We  can  say  that  we 
have  included  all  of  the  important  elements  that 
our  enquiry  furnished. 

This  logical  classification  of  the  topics  to  be  dis- 


1 6  The  Congo 

cussed  will  permit  us  to  study  in  succession  the 
different  criticisms  which  have  been  formulated  and, 
in  the  case  of  abuses  which  we  have  confirmed,  to 
indicate  the  remedy. 

The  criticisms  relate  principally  to : 

1.  Legislation  in  regard  to  land  and  the  free- 
dom of  trade. 

2.  The  system  of  imposed  labour  and  the  abuse 
which  results  from  the  exercise  of  compulsion. 

3.  Military  expeditions,  holding  of  hostages,  ill 
treatment,  mutilation,  etc. 

4.  The  system  of  concessions. 

5.  Depopulation,  its  causes. 

6.  Guardianship   assumed   by  the   State   or   by 
Catholic  missions  over  abandoned  children. 

7.  The  recruiting  of  soldiers  and  labourers. 

8.  The  administration  of  justice. 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    LAND    REGIME    AND    THE    FREEDOM    OF    TRADE 

AT  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Free  State, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  acres  belonging  to 
commercial  houses  at  the  mouths  of  the  river  or  at 
Boma,  there  existed  in  the  Congo  no  private  prop- 
erty in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  used  in 
European  jurisprudence  and  the  present  Civil  Code 
of  the  State.  The  many  communities,  under  the 
authority  of  their  chiefs,  lived  upon  a  vast  ter- 
ritory belonging  to  the  State  without  having  culti- 
vated more  than  a  very  small  part  of  the  same,  but 
they  made  use  of,  in  a  certain  measure,  the  sur- 
rounding lands. 

One  of  the  first  cares  of  the  State,  a  most  natural 
care,  was  to  fix  at  least  in  its  essential  lines,  the 
question  of  land  tenure.  It  validated,  with  due 
regard  to  certain  formalities,  the  rights  of  private 
property  acquired  by  some  commercial  houses  and 
declared  by  statute  that  the  vacant  lands  belonged 
to  the  State,  while  the  land  occupied  by  the  natives 
should  continue  to  be  subject  to  local  customs  and 
usages. 

Article  2  of  the  Ordinance  of  July  i,  1885,  was  in 
fact :  **  No  one  has  the  right  to  occupy  without  title 

17 


1 8  The  Congo 

the  vacant  lands,  nor  dispossess  the  natives  of  the 
land  which  they  occupy;  the  vacant  lands  are  to  be 
regarded  as  belonging  to  the  State." 

And  Article  2  of  the  Decree  of  September  17, 
1886,  says:  ''The  lands  occupied  by  the  native 
population,  under  the  authority  of  their  chiefs,  shall 
continue  to  be  governed  by  the  local  customs  and 
usages.  Contracts  made  with  the  natives  for  the 
acquisition  or  leasing  of  land  will  not  be  recognised 
by  the  State  nor  admitted  to  record  until  after  hav- 
ing been  approved  by  the  General  Administrator  of 
the  Congo." 

The  Commission  does  not  intend  to  dispute  the 
legality  of  the  appropriation  of  vacant  lands  by  the 
State.  The  principle  according  to  which  vacant 
lands  belong  to  a  State  is,  in  fact,  admitted  by  all 
codes  and,  in  the  region  recognised  as  the  Congo 
basin,  it  is  observed  by  other  governments  than  the 
Free  State.  But  the  effect  of  the  application  of  the 
land  laws  upon  the  native  population  depends  alto- 
gether on  the  meaning  that  should  be  attached  to 
the  words  occupied  lands,  and  vacant  lands,  and  if 
the  State  wishes  that  the  principle  of  state  appropria- 
tion of  vacant  lands  be  not  abused,  it  ought  to  warn 
its  officials  and  agents  against  a  too  strict  inter- 
pretation of  the  definition  as  well  as  an  excessively 
rigorous  application  of  the  principle. 

The  law  of  the  Free  State  has  never  defined  what 
should  be  understood  as  "  land  occupied  by  the 
natives  "  and  the  courts  of  the  State  have  never  had 


The  Land  Regime  ig 

occasion  to  pass  upon  this  question.  In  the  absence 
of  a  legal  definition,  it  seems  to  have  been  generally 
admitted  in  the  Congo  that  one  should  consider  as 
occupied  by  the  natives  only  those  parts  of  the  ter- 
ritory that  are  included  within  their  villages  or 
under  their  cultivation. 

It  has  also  been  asserted  that  on  the  lands  thus 
occupied,  the  natives  must  make  the  same  use  of  the 
ground  that  they  made  of  it  before  the  organisation 
of  the  State. 

This  interpretation  rests  upon  the  Decrees  of  De- 
cember 5,  1892,  and  August  9,  1893,  ^^^d  also  upon 
the  discussion  of  the  system  of  landholding  which 
appeared  in  Bulletin  Officiel  of  1893,  page  208.^ 

As  the  greater  part  of  the  land  in  the  Congo  has 
never  been  under  cultivation,  this  interpretation 
gives  to  the  State  a  proprietary  right  absolute  and 
exclusive,  to  almost  all  of  the  lands,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence, it  can  grant  to  itself  all  the  products  of  the 
soil  and  prosecute  as  robbers  those  who  gather  the 

*  The  Decree  of  December  5,  1892,  provided  for  an  enquiry 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  rights  of  the  natives  in  the 
matter  of  exploiting  rubber  and  other  forest  products  in  the 
Upper  Congo,  rights  that  were  acquired  prior  to  the  promul- 
gation of  the  ordinance  of  July  i,  1885. 

The  Decree  of  August  9,  1893,  provides  that  when  native 
villages  are  found  established  upon  territory  transferred  or 
leased  by  the  State,  the  inhabitants  may  extend  their  cultiva- 
tion so  long  as  the  official  survey  has  not  been  made. 

The  statement  in  the  Bulletin  of  1893  speaks  of  the 
right  of  occupation  which  exists  to  the  profit  of  the  native 
population  of  lands  actually  occupied  or  exploited  by  them. 


20  The  Congo 

smallest  fruit,  arid  as  accomplices  those  who  buy 
the  same.  It  could  prohibit  any  one  from  locating 
upon  any  portion  of  the  greater  part  of  the  State; 
restrict  the  activities  of  the  natives  to  a  limited 
space;  and  hamper  their  economic  condition.  This 
principle  applied  abusively  v^ould  oppose  all  evolu- 
tion in  the  life  of  the  native. 

It  thus  happens,  sometimes,  that  not  only  have 
the  natives  been  prohibited  from  moving  their  vil- 
lages, but  they  have  been  refused  permission  to  go, 
even  for  a  time,  to  a  neighboring  village  v^rithout  a 
special  permit.  The  native,  moving  to  another 
village  without  being  provided  with  the  requisite 
authority,  makes  himself  liable  to  arrest,  and  oc- 
casionally is  subjected  to  punishment. 

Certain  agents  have  thought  they  found  justifi- 
cation for  this  prohibition  in  the  property  rights: 
can  not  ownership  of  lands,  whenever  it  pleases, 
give  the  right  to  forbid  a  third  party  to  cross  them 
or  settle  upon  them? 

We  hasten  to  add  that  in  reality  no  one  has 
shown  himself  so  rigid.  Practically  everywhere  the 
enjoyment  of  the  public  domain  has  been  given  to 
the  natives  for  the  gathering  of  certain  products, 
notably  the  palm  nut,  one  of  the  most  important 
articles  of  export  in  the  Lower  Congo.^ 

But  this  is  only  a  simple  sufferance,  revocable  at 

^  In  certain  regions  fixed  by  the  Decree  of  October  30,  1892, 
the  State  granted  to  private  individuals  the  exclusive  right 
to  exploit  rubber,  but  in  the  majority  of  cases,  this  disposition 
has  not  been  utilised  by  the  natives,  as  we  shall  show  later. 


The  Land  Regime  21 

any  time,  so  that  the  natives,  so  to  speak,  are  at  the 
mercy  of  the  local  authorities  or  the  companies  hold- 
ing the  concessions  who  can,  whenever  they  wish, 
by  a  strict  application  of  the  incontrovertible  law, 
create  a  crying  abuse. 

It  follows  from  the  statement  which  precedes 
that  the  State  could  perform  a  wise  and  useful  ser- 
vice in  developing  the  system  of  landholding  by 
giving  to  the  laws  of  July  i,  1885,  and  of  Septem- 
ber 17,  1886,  which  insure  to  the  natives  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  lands  held  under  the  authority  of  their 
chiefs,  a  broad  and  liberal  interpretation,  conform- 
able, undoubtedly,  with  the  spirit  which  dictated 
them. 

The  Commission  takes  note  of  the  considerable 
work  made  necessary  by  the  delimitation,  through- 
out the  entire  country,  of  the  vast  tracts  occupied, 
under  this  system,  by  the  natives. 

While  waiting  for  the  completion  of  this  work, 
the  Commission  feels  itself  able  to  suggest  a  pro- 
visional solution  which  will  be,  in  its  opinion,  just 
and  practicable. 

It  would  be  sufficient  to  abandon  to  the  natives 
the  enjoyment  of  the  land  surrounding  their  huts 
and  of  their  fields  and  to  allow  them  to  freely  dis- 
pose of  the  products  of  their  lands,  selling  such  as 
could  be  marketed. 

It  is,  in  a  word,  the  system  adopted  by  the 
French  Government,  which  reserves  to  the  natives 
*'  besides  the  villages  occupied  by  them,  the  fields, 


22  The  Cong-o 

pasture  lands  or  forests,  the  boundaries  of  which 
have  been  established  by  the  Governor/'  ^ 

The  Commission  does  not  think  that  the  conces- 
sions granted  by  the  State  or  the  leases  made  by  it 
which,  in  any  case,  could  be  made  only  with  a  re- 
servation of  the  rights  of  the  natives,  could  con- 
stitute an  obstacle  to  a  just  delimitation  of  the  lands 
belonging  to  them,  for  we  only  ask,  in  a  word,  for 
the  interpretation  and  equitable  application  of  the 
laws  which  confirmed  to  the  natives  the  enjoyment 
of  the  lands  occupied  by  them  under  the  authority 

^Article  lo  of  the  general  charter  to  all  concessions  in  the 
French  colonies  states :  "  The  company  holding  a  concession 
can  exercise  the  right  to  enjoy  and  exploit  as  granted  under 
Article  i  only  the  territory  outside  of  the  villages  occupied 
by  the  natives  and  the  land  under  cultivation  by  them,  their 
pastures  or  forests  which  are  reserved  for  them.  The  bound- 
ary of  these  lands,  in  case  of  natives  with  fixed  habitations, 
or  the  movable  boundaries  in  case  of  the  migratory  tribes, 
will  be  determined  by  the  Governor  of  the  colony,  who  will 
likewise  fix  the  limits  of  the  land  which  will  be  reserved  to 
the  natives  as  hunting  and  fishing  grounds.  Land  thus  re- 
served for  the  natives  cannot  be  ceded  by  them,  either  to  a 
concession  or  a  third  party,  without  the  authorisation  of  the 
Governor  of  the  colony. 

"  In  the  case  where,  during  the  term  of  a  concession,  any 
changes  in  the  boundaries  are  deemed  necessary  by  the  Gov- 
ernor, either  because  of  the  collective  interests  of  the  natives 
or  the  public  interest  of  the  colony,  modifications  can  be  made 
under  the  provisions  of  Article  8. 

"  The  customs,  habits,  religion  and  tribal  organisation  of  the 
natives  should  be  rigorously  respected.  The  agents  of  the  con- 
cessions will  report  to  the  administration  all  acts  contrary 
to  humanity  of  which  they  may  be  witnesses." 


The  Land  Regime  23 

of  their  chiefs,  laws   which  were  anterior  to  all 
concessions  and  all  leases. 

The  provisional  solution  which  we  propose  will 
work  no  appreciable  hardship  upon  the  concessions 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  State  is  sufficiently 
strong  to  make  them  accept  the  rule  which  it  will 
establish  in  its  domain,  for,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
these  companies  can  exist  only  under  the  favours 
granted  by  the  State,  independently  of  the  rights 
bestowed  in  the  act  of  concession  itself. 

Freedom  of  Trade 

We  will  not  examine  the  question  of  the  freedom 
of  trade  in  its  relation  to  the  Act  of  Berlin.  Such 
a  study  would  cause  us  to  go  beyond  the  boundaries 
which  were  established  for  us,  and  besides  it  is  the 
subject  of  treatise  and  memorandum,  the  work  of 
distinguished  jurists,  well  known  to  all  who  are 
interested  in  this  question. 

Before  the  constitution  of  the  State,  the  com- 
mercial activity  of  the  natives  of  the  Congo  was 
restricted  to  the  traffic  in  ivory  and  in  slaves. 
These  two  trades  no  longer  exist.  The  interdiction 
of  the  slave  trade  on  the  one  part,  the  exhaustion 
of  the  supply  of  ivory  and  the  law  against  the  hunt- 
ing of  the  elephant  on  the  other  hand,  gave  them 
their  mortal  blow. 

Let  us  add  that  there  is  no  native  industry  capable 
of  supporting  a  trade  of  any  importance.    One  finds 


24  The  Congo 

in  most  of  the  villages  forgers,  potters,  and  basket- 
makers.  But  the  artisans  work  only  to  order  and 
never  make  of  the  products  an  object  of  genuine 
traffic.  There  remains  the  product  of  the  soil. 
Now  we  have  just  seen  that  the  lands  reserved  to 
the  natives  have  not  been  surveyed;  besides  the 
crude  methods  of  cultivation  barely  meet  the  needs 

J  of  the  natives  and  the  supplies  of  the  stations,  and 

I  all  of  the  natural  products  of  the  land  are  considered 
as  being  the  property  of  the  State  or  of  the  com- 

.    panics  holding  the  concessions. 

\  Thus,  although  by  law,  freedom  of  trade  is 
formally  recognised,  the  merchantable  products  in 
many  districts  are  lacking  to  the  natives. 

The  multiplication  of  land  laws  which  we  have 
mentioned  before,  the  further  regulations  which  we 
shall  formulate  in  the  following  are  of  a  nature  to 
change  this  state  of  affairs. 

Trade  would  be  considerably  facilitated  by  the 
introduction  throughout  the  State  of  money  which  is 
at  present  brought  only  partly  into  use  in  the  Lower 
Congo.  This  is  demanded  by  the  State  Agents, 
the  merchants,  the  missionaries,  and  even  by  the 
blacks  who  have  become  acquainted  with  money. 
At  present  in  the  Upper  Congo  all  payments  made 
to  the  natives  consist  of  merchandise  whose  value  is 
fixed  by  the  commercial  companies.  These  objects 
(brass  rods  called  Mitakos,  goods,  pearls,  etc.) 
represent  values  widely  different  in  different 
regions.     More  than  that,  they  are  greatly  depre- 


The  Land  Regime  25 

ciated  in  most  of  the  native  markets  so  that  the 
black,  compelled  to  accept  this  sort  of  money  at  its 
nominal  value  in  exchange  for  all  of  the  products 
which  he  brings  to  the  State  or  the  companies,  is 
often  injured. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  traders  have  no  interest 
in  giving  their  European  goods  in  return  for  articles 
of  a  value  which  is  variable  and  altogether  ficti- 
tious, and  which  likewise  could  not  be  exported 
without  great  loss. 

We  are  not  ignorant  of  the  difficulty  which  could 

.  result  from  a  change  in  the  methods  to  which  we 

have  referred,  but  we  can  not  refrain  from  advising 

the  Government  to  extend  gradually  the  payment 

in  cash. 


CHAPTER   II 


TAXATION 


THE  greater  part  of  the  criticisms  directed 
against  the  State  is  connected  more  or  less 
directly  with  the  question  of  taxation,  and  especially 
a  tax  payable  in  labour,  the  only  one  which  affects 
the  native. 

This  is  without  doubt  the  most  important  and  the 
most  complex  question  and  upon  the  solution  of 
this  problem  depends  the  solution  of  the  most  of 
the  others. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  examine  first  of  all 
the  principle  of  labour  taxation  and  afterward  its 
application. 

Justification  of  Labour  Taxation 

All  production,  all  commerce,  all  life  in  the  Congo 
is  only  possible  and  will  only  endure  by  the  aid  of 
native  labour.  The  white  man,  if  he  can  become 
acclimated,  can  only  with  difficulty  become  able  to 
endure  the  hard  labour  of  the  farmer  and  of  the 
workman,  and  that  too  in  a  few  favourable  local- 
ities. On  the  other  hand,  the  native  by  atavism 
and  because  of  the  conditions  of  the  country  has,  in 

26 


Taxation  27 

general,  no  predilection  for  work.  He  does  only, 
what  is  absolutely  necessary  for  his  subsistence.; 
The  fertility  of  the  soil,  the  breadth  of  territory,  the 
small  amount  of  labour  which  cultivation  demands, 
the  clemency  of  the  climate,  all  reduce  to  a  mini- 
mum the  sum  total  of  necessary  efforts;  a  few 
branches  and  some  leaves  suffice  to  shelter  him;  he 
wears  no  clothing,  or  practically  none;  fishing, 
hunting,  and  some  crude  farming  give  him  easily 
the  little  nourishment  which  he  needs;  his  energy 
is  only  stimulated  by  the  desire  to  procure  weapons, 
ornaments,  or  a  wife;  but,  the  desire  once  satis- 
fied, there  is  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  exist.  He 
is  happy  in  his  idleness.  One  finds  exceptions 
amongst  the  most  advanced  races,  like  those  of 
Kasai  who  have  more  extensive  wants  to  satisfy, 
and  amongst  peoples  formerly  under  Arab  rule. 
These  have  been  during  many  generations  obliged 
to  work  and  have  acquired  that  habit;  but  as  a 
general  rule  the  natives  desire  nothing  more  than 
to  be  left  with  their  ancient  existence ;  no  desire  can 
attract  them  to  a  labour  of  any  consequence,  or  of 
a  fixed  duration. 

From  the  beginning  the  Europeans  who  were  in- 
stalled in  the  Congo  found  themselves  faced  by  the 
necessity  to  call  upon  the  help  of  the  natives  and  by 
the  impossibility  of  obtaining  it,  at  least  in  a  constant 
or  permanent  way,  through  the  regular  course  of  sup-  j 
ply  and  demand.  It  was  only  with  the  assistance  i 
of   the   crew   of   the   Zanzibarites,    continually   re- 


28  The  Congo 

newed,  that  Stanley  was  able  to  trace  the  first  path 
between  Vivi  and  the  pool  and  launch  the  first 
boat  on  the  Upper  Congo.  All  his  efforts  to  obtain 
assistance  of  the  natives  were  vain.  It  is  only 
through  the  labour  of  the  natives  of  Senegal  and  of 
Sierra  Leone,  paid  in  gold,  that  it  was  possible  to 
build  the  railway  around  the  Cataracts.  But  it  is 
found  that  this  system  of  relying  upon  foreign 
labour  can  only  be  exceptional ;  it  is  the  country  it- 
self which  ought  to  furnish  manual  labour  necessary 
for  its  life  and  development.  It  is  only,  therefore, 
in  making  of  labour  a  duty  that  one  can  educate 
the  native  to  furnish  regular  service  and  obtain 
the  aid  necessary  to  give  value  to  the  country, 
exploit  its  natural  wealth,  to  profit,  in  a  word, 
from  its  resources.  It  is  at  this  price  only  that  one 
can  cause  the  Congo  to  enter  upon  the  movement 
towards  modern  civilisation,  and  snatch  its  popula- 
tion from  the  condition  of  bondage  and  barbarism 
in  which  they  have  rested  until  the  present.  This 
condition  is,  without  doubt,  the  ideal  of  the  present 
native,  but  it  must  be  conceded  that  it  can  not  be 
that  of  civilised  people  nor  can  it  produce  a  hopeful 
future  for  the  human  race. 

Now  the  only  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  State 
by  which  the  native  can  be  made  to  work  is  the  im- 
position of  a  tax  in  labour;  and  it  is  precisely  in 
view  of  the  necessity  of  assuring  to  the  State  the 
indispensable  labour  of  native  hands  that  a  tax  in 
labour  is  justifiable  in  the  Congo.     This  tax,  be- 


Taxation  29 

sides,  takes  the  place  with  the  population  of  those 
restraining  influences  which,  in  civilised  countries, 
are  imposed  by  the  conditions  of  life. 

The  principle  by  virtue  of  which  the  State  de- 
mands of  its  citizens,  in  the  public  interests,  not 
only  a  contribution  in  the  shape  of  money  or 
products,  but  also  personal  service  —  individual 
labour,  is  admitted  by  European  codes.  The  obliga- 
tion of  military  service  weighs  heavily  upon  almost 
the  entire  male  population  of  Continental  Europe, 
and  the  laws  clearly  recognise  in  certain  cases  that 
the  State  and  even  the  communes  have  the  right  to 
call  upon  their  citizens  for  personal  labour  on  works 
of  public  interest.  For  still  greater  reasons,  this  tax 
should  be  regarded  as  legitimate  in  a  young  state 
where  everything  is  to  be  created,  in  a  new  country 
without  other  resources  than  those  which  can  be 
drawn  from  the  native  population. 

Moreover,  the  labour  tax  is  the  only  tax  that  is 
possible  at  the  present  time  in  the  Congo,  for  the 
native,  as  a  rule,  has  nothing  beyond  his  hut,  his 
weapons  and  the  few  plantations  absolutely  neces- 
sary for  his  subsistence.  A  tax  implying  a  capital 
from  which  to  pay  it  is  impossible  here.  If  there- 
fore one  grants  to  the  Congo  the  same  right  to 
demand  of  its  subjects  such  resources  as  are  needed 
for  its  maintenance  and  development  —  a  right  en- 
joyed by  all  other  countries  —  one  must  recognise 
its  right  to  claim  the  one  thing  which  its  people  can 
give,  namely,  a  certain  amount  of  labour. 


30  The  Congo 

It  is  true  that  a  labour  tax,  as  in  the  case  of  all 
taxes,  should  absorb  only  a  small  portion  of  the 
activities  of  the  individual;  it  ought  to  supply 
simply  the  needs  of  the  government,  be  in  relation 
to  the  benefits  which  the  contributors  receive  there- 
from ;  it  ought  finally,  as  we  propose,  be  in  harmony 
as  far  as  possible  with  the  principle  of  individual 
liberty,  and  we  believe  that  within  these  limits  it 
cannot  be  criticised. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  obligation  to  work,  if  not 
excessive,  and  if  it  is  imposed  in  an  equitable  and 
paternal  manner,  avoiding  as  far  as  possible,  as  we 
shall  explain  later,  the  use  of  force,  will  have  the 
great  merit  of  being  the  most  efficient  agency  for 
civilisation  and  for  the  transformation  of  the  native 
population. 

In  fact,  the  native  left  to  himself,  in  spite  of  all 
the  efforts  to  instruct  him  and  improve  his  con- 
dition, will  continue  to  live  in  the  primitive  state  in 
which  he  existed  for  many  centuries  and  from  which 
he  has  no  desire  to  part.  One  has  an  evident  proof 
of  this,  even  within  the  radius  of  influence  of  the 
missions  both  Catholic  and  Protestant;  how  many 
efforts,  how  many  acts  of  devotion  have  been  ex- 
pended in  vain !  ^ 

*  We  ought  to  make  an  exception  in  the  case  of  the  regions 
in  the  Cataract  District  where  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bentley  has 
been  located  for  the  past  twenty-five  years.  It  was  pointed 
out  to  us  that  here  the  natives  have  made  real  progress ;  they 
have  learned  trades  and  built  of  their  own  initiative  and  at 
their  own  expense  houses  of  brick  and  even  a  church. 


Taxation  31 

Precept  and  example  do  not  suffice.  It  is  in  spite 
of  himself  that  the  native  in  the  beginning  must  be 
induced  to  throw  off  his  natural  indolence  and  im- 
prove his  condition.  A  law,  therefore,  which  im- 
poses upon  the  native  light  and  regular  work  is  the 
only  means  of  giving  him  the  incentive  to  work; 
while  it  is  an  economic  law,  it  is  at  the  same  time  a 
humanitarian  law.  It  does  not  lose  the  last  named 
character  because  it  imposes  some  compulsion  upon 
the  native.  To  civilise  a  race  means  to  modify  its 
'economic  and  social  condition,  its  intellectual  and 
moral  status;  it  is  to  extirpate  its  ideas,  customs 
and  habits  and  substitute  in  the  place  of  those  of 
which  we  disapprove  the  ideas,  habits  and  customs 
which  are  akin  to  ours;  it  is,  in  a  word,  to  assume 
the  education  of  a  people.  All  education  which 
concerns  a  child  or  an  inferior  race  necessarily  in- 
flicts a  curtailment  of  liberty. 

We  do  not  deny  that  it  will  be  very  easy  to  abuse 
the  principle  in  an  intention  purely  economic  and 
that  the  application  of  restraint  in  order  to  obtain 
the  labour  may  result  in  excess.  But  this  must  be 
the  task  of  wise  laws  that  will  avoid  abuse  by  fixing 
clearly  and  definitely  the  limits  of  the  tax  and  the 
means  to  be  employed  in  obtaining  it  and  in  seeing 
to  it  rigidly  and  loyally  that  these  limits  are  not 
exceeded. 


32  The  Congo 


The  System  Prior  to  the  Law  of 
November  i8,  1903 

It  must  be  conceded  that  legislation  in  regard  to 
taxes  was  a  difficult  matter,  one  which  called  for  a 
profound  study  of  the  conditions  of  the  country. 
It  was  impossible  that  the  State,  in  the  first  attempt, 
could  solve  the  problem,  and  we  do  not  think  that  it 
should  be  blamed  for  having  at  the  beginning  of  its 
occupation  and  in  regions  as  yet  unexplored,  allowed 
its  agents,  often  isolated  and  surrounded  by  sav- 
ages, to  draw  at  their  discretion  from  the  surround- 
ing country  the  supplies  necessary  for  their  main- 
tenance and  for  the  development  of  the  first  stations. 

The  Decree  of  October  6,  1891,  clearly  provided 
the  prestation  to  be  furnished  by  the  chiefs  who 
were  commissioned  by  the  State;  a  Decree  of 
November  28,  1893,  authorised  the  commandant 
of  the  forces  in  the  Manyema  to  levy,  by  means  of 
prestation,  a  part  of  the  supplies  necessary  to  cover 
the  expenses  occasioned  by  the  suppression  of  the 
revolt  of  the  Arabs,  and  to  determine  the  character 
and  value  of  the  prestations  to  be  furnished  by  each 
locality  or  native  chief.  The  Decree  of  October  30, 
1892  (Art.  7),  obHged  the  natives  or  workmen 
gathering  rubber  in  the  territories  above  Stanley 
Pool  where  the  gathering  is  authorised,  to  supply 
the  State,  as  rent  or  tax,  a  quantity  of  products  to 
be  determined  by  the  Governor  General,  but  which 


Taxation  33 

should  not  in  any  case  exceed  the  fifth  of  the 
harvest.  But  these  provisions  are  found  in  only 
special  cases. 

A  Decree  of  the  King-Sovereign  under  date  of 
December  5,  1892  (not  published  in  the  Bulletin 
Officiel),  instructs  the  Secretary  of  State  "to 
take  whatever  steps  he  may  deem  necessary  or 
practical  to  assure  the  exploitation  of  the  private 
domain." 

For  a  long  time  the  administration  thought  it 
could  draw  upon  its  right  to  make  prestations  and 
also  to  delegate  this  right  to  companies,  without  in 
any  way  specifying  the  nature  of  the  tax  or  the 
amount  of  the  prestation  nor  even  the  means  that 
could  be  employed  to  procure  them;  but  from  the 
day  when  the  Court  of  Appeals  at  Boma  incidentally, 
in  pronouncing  a  decision  in  regard  to  repressive 
measures,  expressed  the  opinion  that,  in  the  state 
of  legislation,  nothing  could  compel  the  natives  to 
labour,  the  Government  realised  the  necessity  to 
adjust  the  matter.  The  Decree  of  November  18, 
1903,  was  promulgated.^ 

In  a  general  way,  it  should  be  said,  all  that  con- 
cerned the  prescriptions  and  prestation  in  relation 
to  the  natives,  was  until  recent  years  left  to  the 
discretion  of  the  agents. 

^Decisions  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Boma,  August 
29,  1899:  The  State  against  Kasesa,  and  September  8,  1903: 
The  State  against  Moketo  and  Olembo.  The  officials  of  the 
local  government  also  called  attention  to  this  gap  in  the  code. 


34  The  Cong-o 

Each  chief  of  a  post  or  factory  demanded  of  the 
natives,  without  asking  himself  by  what  right,  pres- 
tations of  various  sorts  in  the  shape  of  labour  and 
the  products  whether  to  meet  his  own  needs  or  those 
of  the  post  or  aid  in  adding  to  the  wealth  of  the 
State. 

In  recent  times  the  amount  of  prestation  was  fixed 
by  the  District  Commissioners  to  whom  the  greatest 
latitude  was  given  in  such  a  way  that  the  amount  of 
tax  varied  greatly  according  to  circumstances  and 
localities.  Thus  the  quantity  of  rubber  for  each 
gatherer  varied,  being  9  kilos  in  Mongalla,  6  kilos 
in  Abir,  2  to  4  kilos  in  different  sections,  while  in 
the  Lower  Congo  no  tax  was  demanded.  More 
than  this,  no  control  was  exercised  over  the  way  in 
which  agents  conformed  their  demands  to  the 
official  requirements. 

This  system  had  the  advantage  of  adapting  itself 
easily  to  the  local  conditions.  But  its  value  depended 
upon  the  character  of  the  man  who  applied  it,  and 
when  the  agent  was  reasonable  and  thoughtful  he 
endeavoured  to  harmonise  the  interest  of  the  State 
or  of  the  company  with  those  of  the  natives  and 
sometimes  he  could  obtain  a  great  deal  without 
violent  means,  but  a  large  number  of  the  agents 
thought  only  of  obtaining  the  most  possible  in  the 
shortest  time  and  their  demands  were  often  exces- 
sive. This  was  not  astonishing,  for  in  the  case  of 
the  products  of  the  domain  the  agents  who  fixed 
the  taxes  and  collected  them  had  a  direct  interest  in 


Taxation  35 

increasing  the  amount,  since  they  received  pre- 
miums^ in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the  pro- 
ducts gathered. 

The  work  furnished  by  the  natives  was  paid  for. 
But  the  amount  of  this  payment  was,  as  the  fixing 
of  the  taxes,  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  agents.  To 
tell  the  truth,  for  the  exploitation  of  the  domain, 
the  instructions  of  the  Government  which  appeared 
in  the  Bulletin  Officiel,  1896,  prescribed  that  the 
remunerations  to  the  natives  should  never  be  below 
the  price  of  the  manual  labour  necessary  for  the 
gathering  of  the  products ;  that  it  ought  to  be  fixed 
by  a  schedule  prepared  by  the  Commissioner  of  the 
District  and  approved  by  the  Governor  General. 
These  instructions  required  a  state  inspector  to 
verify  the  justice  of  these  schedules  and  to  see  to 
their  execution.  But  they  have  been  only  imperfectly 
carried  out.     The  only  schedule  approved  by  the 

*  These  premiums  were  suppressed  about  ten  years  ago.  i 
The  bounties  given  in  the  name  of  "expenses  of  collecting," 
which  followed  the  premiums,  could  be  considered  as  not 
differing  materially  from  the  method  abolished.  These  boun- 
ties have  been  suppressed  in  their  turn  by  the  articles  of 
December  31,  1896,  which  constitute  "the  retiring  fund." 
Some  have  thought  they  saw  in  this  institution  a  remnant  of 
the  past  errors.  It  appears  from  the  information  gathered 
and  the  examination  of  the  records  of  "the  retiring  fund" 
that  for  some  years,  with  the  exception  of  certain  classes  of 
agents  who  enjoy  other  advantages  (such  as  physicians  and 
the  steamer  captains),  all  meritorious  agents,  even  those  whose 
positions  have  no  relation  with  the  gathering  of  the  products 
of  the  domain,  such  as  judges,  have  the  right  to  this  "  retiring 
fund." 


36  The  Congo 

Governor  General  fixes  the  maximum  amount 
which  the  commissioners  of  districts  were  iauthor- 
ised  to  pay,  but  did  not  indicate  a  minimum;  more- 
over, no  report  of  the  state  inspectors  exists  on  this 
subject. 

It  happened,  consequently,  that  very  often  the 
remuneration  given  to  the  natives  was  insufficient; 
sometimes  even,  they  were  paid  in  goods  which  had 
no  value  in  that  locaUty.  The  same  uncertainty 
existed  in  regard  to  the  means  of  compulsion  when 
there  was  a  necessity  to  use  it  in  cases  of  non-pay- 
ment of  taxes.  Agents  on  this  point  as  on  many 
others  followed  no  rule.  We  shall  point  out  in  the 
course  of  this  Report  acts  of  violence  more  or  less 
severe  committed  either  towards  individuals  or 
against  a  people,  where  the  use  of  force  was  the 
cause. 

The  agents,  it  should  be  said,  were  never  suf- 
ficiently warned  against  these  excesses.  The  local 
government  did  not  fail  from  time  to  time  to  send 
instructions  and  circulars  to  remind  the  district 
commissioners  and  their  agents  of  their  duty  to 
treat  the  blacks  with  justice  and  humanity.  But 
only  in  rare  cases  were  more  efficient  means  em- 
ployed. 

The  offences  committed  on  the  occasion  of  the 
use  of  the  exercise  of  force  have  rarely  been  referred 
to  the  courts.  All  courts,  and  especially  the  inferior 
court  and  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  Boma,  when  they 
have  been  invoked  punished  every  act  not  in  ac- 


Taxation  37 

cordance  with  law,  every  ill-treatment,  every  abuse, 
of  which  the  blacks  were  victims.  Even  if  they 
took  into  account  the  extenuating  circumstances  as 
the  necessities  of  the  country  and  the  influence  of 
their  surroundings  they  did  not  see  any  excuse  for 
arbitrary  acts  in  the  absence  of  legislation. 

The  Law  of  November  18,  1903 

As  we  have  said,  a  Decree  of  the  King-Sovereign 
under  date  of  November  18,  1903,  fixed  a  uniform 
law  concerning  taxes  for  the  entire  State. 

The  substance  of  this  law,  so  far  as  concerns  the 
natives,  is  the  following :  Every  adult  native  in  good 
health  is  subject  to  prestation  which  consists  in 
labour  for  the  State.  This  work  is  to  be  remuner- 
ated; the  total  amount  cannot  exceed  during  any 
one  month  forty  hours  of  actual  labour.  The  com- 
pensation must  not  be  less  than  the  wages  paid  in 
*the  neighbourhood  (Art.  2).  A  census  of  all  the 
natives  shall  be  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Districts,  said  census  to  serve  as 
the  basis  in  making  the  levies  and  shall  indicate 
by  name  those  who  are  subject  to  the  tax  in  each 
village.  These  lists  shall  be  approved  by  the 
Governor  General. 

The  District  Commissioners  shall  indicate  on  the 
lists  prepared  by  them  the  quantities  of  products 
of  various  sorts  which  correspond  to  the  number  of 
hours  imposed,  keeping  in  mind  as  far  as  possible 


38  The  Congo 

the  circumstances  which  surround  the  natives,  such 
as  the  richness  of  the  forests,  their  distance  from 
the  villages,  the  kind  of  produce  demanded,  the 
method  of  securing  it,  etc. ;  they  will  have  the  power 
to  require  in  lieu  of  compulsory  labour,  the  corre- 
sponding quantity  of  produce  either  for  each  indi- 
vidual or  for  a  group  of  natives  or  an  entire  village 
(Art.  31). 

The  agents  charged  with  the  procuring  of  the 
prestations  can,  upon  the  demand  of  a  native  chief 
and  with  the  approval  of  the  Governor,  unite  the 
natives  into  groups  or  villages,  under  authority 
of  their  chiefs,  for  the  payment  of  the  prestation. 
In  such  a  case  they  are  warned  to  see  to  it  that  the 
amounts  specified  in  the  lists  are  forthcoming  and 
to  prosecute  according  to  Article  55,  which  follows, 
the  chiefs  who  do  not  observe  the  lists  made  out  for 
the  levying  of  the  prestations  (Art.  33). 

The  natives  may  be  permitted  to  acquit  them- 
selves of  the  prestations  by  furnishing  to  the  State 
a  fixed  quantity  of  produce  of  their  cultivation  or 
fabrication.  For  this  purpose,  the  District  Com- 
missioners each  year  establish  a  schedule  indicating 
the  value  of  the  various  products  of  the  natives  in 
terms  of  hours  of  work  for  the  different  regions  of 
their  districts.  This  schedule  is  to  be  approved  by 
the  Governor  General  at  the  same  time  with  the 
lists  of  prestations  (Art.  34). 

The  Governor  General  may  appoint  in  such  local- 
ities as  he  elects  delegates  to  collect  the  prestation 


Taxation  39 

produce    under    such    conditions    as    he    may    fix 
(Art.  35). 

In  case  of  the  refusal  to  pay  the  prestation  in  j 
kind,  the  natives,  in  the  absence  of  real  or  personal  1 
property,  may  be  compelled  to  pay  the  tax  by  the  | 
authority  whose  duty  it  is  to  collect  the  same.     To 
this  end,  forced  labour  can  be  imposed  (Art.  54). 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  visit  of  the  Commission, 
this  law  had  been  put  in  force  in  only  some  of  the 
districts. 

The  Decree  fixes  at  forty  hours  a  month  the 
labour  that  each  native  owes  the  State.  The  time, 
considered  as  the  maximum,  cannot  surely  be 
regarded  as  too  much,  especially  if  one  keeps  in 
mind  the  fact  that  the  labour  is  to  be  paid  for ;  how- 
ever, as  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  by  the  appli- 
cation of  Articles  31  and  34,  it  is  not  the  labour 
that  is  demanded  of  the  native,  but  a  quantity  of 
produce  equivalent  to  forty  hours  of  work,  the 
standard  of  time  disappears  and  is  replaced  by  an 
equivalent  fixed  by  the  Commissioners  of  Districts 
according  to  different  methods.  Sometimes  an  at- 
tempt has  been  made  to  calculate  the  amount  of 
time  necessary  to  gather  certain  products,  as  a  kilo- 
gram of  rubber  or  chikwangue,  for  example;  some- 
times one  is  compelled  to  estimate  the  value  of 
an  hour's  work  from  the  scale  of  wages  in  the 
neighbourhood,  this  multiplied  by  forty,  and  the 
native  is  called  upon  to  pay  a  quantity  of  produce 
worth  the  amount  thus  obtained. 


40  The  Congo 

The  first  of  these  calculations  rests  upon  arbitrary 
estimates;  the  second  gives  results  which  may  vary 
greatly  according  to  the  valuation  placed  upon  the 
produce  or  upon  the  manual  labour. 

A  circular  of  the  Governor  General  of  the  date 
of  February  29,  1904,  informs  the  District  Com- 
missioners that  the  enforcement  of  the  new  law 
regarding  prestations  should  have  as  its  effect,  not 
merely  the  maintenance  of  results  achieved  during 
the  previous  years,  but  to  show  also  a  constant  in- 
crease in  the  contributions  to  the  treasury. 

Does  the  Government  mean  by  that  that  the 
agents  ought  to  add  to  the  lists  of  contributors  by 
the  inscription,  as  the  territory  becomes  more  and 
more  accessible  under  pacific  occupancy,  of  natives, 
who  until  now  had  avoided  taxation? 

This  is  probable  for  according  to  the  same  circular 
it  is  intended  to  extend  the  prestations  to  as  large  a 
number  of  natives  as  possible  in  order  to  obtain  the 
maximum  of  resources  with  the  minimum  of 
burden  to  each  individual.  It  is,  however,  none  the 
less  true  that,  presented  in  the  general  terms  which 
we  have  given,  these  instructions  would  in  the 
majority  of  cases  prevent  the  District  Commis- 
sioners, in  making  up  their  new  rolls,  from  lessening 
excessive  burdens. 

And  in  fact,  many  of  them  are  satisfied  to  con- 
tinue the  former  schedule  of  prestations.^ 

*  In  most  of  the  regions  in  the  Cataract  district  the  tax 
levy  was  reduced  to  less  than  one  quarter  of  what  it  was 
formerly. 


Taxation  41 

As  to  the  compensation  for  the  labour  which  the 
native  furnishes  under  the  name  of  tax,  the  law 
prescribes  that  it  shall  not  be  less  than  the  local 
wages. 

The  principle  of  remuneration,  while  not  har- 
monising with  the  idea  of  taxation,  can  have  in  the 
Congo  the  great  advantage  of  causing  the  native  to 
comprehend  the  value  of  labour. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  just  that  the  compensation 
be  limited  to  the  value  of  the  actual  labour  furnished 
by  the  native  and  that  he  should  not  be  paid  the 
value  of  the  produce  created  by  his  labour;  for,  in 
general,  the  produce  does  not  belong  to  him  —  he 
merely  supplies  the  work  of  collecting  it.^ 

Thei  law  fixes  the  local  scale  of  wages  as  the 
minimum,  but  the  instructions  of  the  circular  dated 
February  29,  1904,  seem  to  regard  that  as  the 
maximum  and  they  recommend  to  the  District 
Commissioners  not  to  give  a  remuneration  above 
what  was  accepted  before. 

Finally,  the  law  of  November  18,  1903,  does  not 
solve  satisfactorily  the  question  of  compulsion.  We 
shall  mention  merely  in  passing  the  Articles  46,  47, 
48  and  49,  authorising  the  seizure  of  the  property 


*  Even  in  the  case  of  the  produce  that  actually  belongs  to 
the  native  (chickens,  goats,  etc.)  the  Commission  thinks  that 
another  system  of  remuneration  should  be  followed.  While 
waiting  for  the  introduction  of  the  radical  measure  proposed 
by  the  Commission,  the  market  value  of  the  articles  should 
be  considered. 


42  The  Congo 

of  the  delinquent,  a  means  of  compulsion  which,  for 
good  reasons,  is  not  applicable  in  the  Congo. 
Article  54  says  that  in  default  of  available  property, 
forced  labour  can  be  imposed.  But  how  shall  it  be 
imposed?  Can  one  arrest  a  native,  put  him  in 
chains,  submit  him  to  corporal  punishment?  How 
long  shall  he  be  detained  ?  At  what  labour  shall  he 
be  compelled  to  work  ?  It  is  true  there  are  circulars 
fixing  the  maximum  of  compulsion  at  one  month, 
but  it  is  seen  that  the  matter  has  not  been  removed 
from  the  decision  of  the  individual  agent. 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  point  out  later  other 
matters  regarding  which  the  law  needs  amplifica- 
tion. But  before  all,  if  it  is  desired  that  this  law 
be  productive  of  good  results  such  as  one  would 
wish,  it  is  necessary  that  care  be  taken  that  it  is 
observed  in  the  letter  and  the  spirit. 

It  ought  to  be  possible  for  the  native,  in  the 
forty  hours  of  labour  a  month,  to  completely  dis- 
charge all  of  his  obligations  to  the  State  and  that 
he  be  free  for  the  rest  of  the  time;  it  is  important 
that  the  compensation  be  what  the  law  requires  so 
as  to  effectually  serve  as  an  incentive  to  labour. 

The  rolls  ought,  consequently,  to  be  revised  so  as 
to  be  in  accord  with  the  legal  prescriptions  and  the 
checks  provided  by  the  decree  of  1903  should  secure 
a  strict  compliance  with  the  prescriptions  demanded. 


Taxation  43 

Examination  of  the  Different  Imposts 

The  imposts  may  be  arranged  in  several  groups: 

A.  Ground  Nuts. 

B.  Food  Supplies:  chikwangue,  fish,  game, 
domestic  animals. 

C.  Obligatory  Labour:  for  cutting  wood,  work 
around  the  posts,  rowing,  carrying. 

D.  Harvesting  the  Products  of  the  Domain: 
copal  and  rubber. 

A,    Ground  Nuts 

We  have  made  a  separate  category  of  the  ground 
nut  because  this  product  is  an  article  of  cultivation 
and  can  not  consequently  be  regarded  as  a  fruit  of 
the  domain  like  copal  and  rubber;  more  than  that, 
as  it  is  intended  for  export  we  could  not  include  it 
under  the  list  of  prestations  of  food  supplies.  The 
natives  of  the  Cataract  district  are  the  only  ones 
who  are  required  to  furnish  ground  nuts. 

Prior  to  the  enforcement  of  the  decree  of  1903 
the  contributors  from  the  Cataract  District,  especially 
those  of  the  less  fertile  region,  complained  of  being 
too  heavily  taxed;  but  this  decree  having  reduced 
this  impost  to  one-fourth,  the  complaints  ceased. 
However,  from  information  furnished,  it  seems  that 
if  one  adds  to  the  cost  of  the  labour  the  expense 
of  transportation  this  prestation  yields  nothing  to 
the  State,  estimating  the  price  which  the  ground 
nut  would  bring  in  the  Antwerp  market.    One  could 


44  The  Congo 

give  satisfaction  to  the  natives  and  at  the  same  time 
increase  the  resources  by  changing  this  tax  in 
kind  into  another  tax  as  light  as  possible.  The 
ground  nuts  might  thus  become  an  article  of  com- 
merce, quite  important,  without  prejudice. 

B.    The  Imposts  of  Food  Stuffs 

The  chikwangue  (kwanga)  is  nothing  else  than 
the  maniock  bread,  v^hich  forms  the  principal  article 
of  food  for  the  natives  of  the  Congo  State.  The 
preparation  of  this  article  requires  a  variety  of 
operations :  clearing  of  the  forests,  planting  of  the 
maniock,  digging  the  roots  and  transforming  them 
into  chikwangue,  which  includes  the  operations  of 
retting,  barking,  grinding,  washing,  making  into 
loaves  and  baking.  All  of  these  operations,  with 
the  exception  of  clearing  the  forests,  fall  upon  the 
women.  The  chikwangues  thus  prepared  are  car- 
ried to  the  neighbouring  villages  by  the  natives 
and  serve  as  rations  for  the  personnel  of  the  State, 
soldiers  and  labourers.  This  prestation  is,  like  all 
others,  paid  for.  The  impost  of  chikwangue  is,  in 
a  general  way,  the  kind  that  the  natives  can  dis- 
charge with  the  greatest  ease.  It  requires,  in  fact, 
labour  to  which  the  negro  is  accustomed.  More- 
over, as  we  have  seen,  this  labour  falls  principally 
upon  the  women,  a  condition  which  is  in  harmony 
with  the  customs  of  the  natives.  Therefore,  when 
the  personnel  of  the  post  to  be  supplied  is  not  great, 
and  when,  on  the  other  hand,  the  impost  is  distrib- 


Taxation  45 

uted  equably  through  a  population  of  sufficient 
density,  the  additional  labour  imposed  upon  in- 
dustrious wives  of  blacks  does  not  call  forth  any 
complaint. 

It  is  quite  otherwise  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
important  stations  where  the  natives  are  obliged  to 
furnish  the  subsistence  to  a  large  number  of  work- 
men and  soldiers.  Around  the  important  places  of 
the  district  and  the  military  camps  the  furnishing 
of  chikwangue  becomes  a  relatively  burdensome  im- 
post. The  villages  situated  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  posts  are  not  sufficient  to  furnish 
the  rations,  so  that  there  is  added  the  burden  of 
compulsory  transportation. 

By  way  of  example  we  give  the  condition  which 
exists  at  Leopoldville.  This  post,  whose  importance 
is  increasing  daily,  has  about  3,000  workmen  and 
soldiers.  The  region  upon  which  rests  the  task  of 
supporting  this  personnel  is  far  from  being  very 
populous.  The  villages  there  are  scattered  and  by 
an  examination  of  the  census  taken  in  the  last  few 
years  it  appears  that  their  population  shows  a  tend- 
ency to  decrease.  -^ 

One  has  therefore  been  obliged  to  extend  to  an 
unusual  range  the  region  from  which  the  inhabitants 
are  called  upon  to  furnish  chikwangue  to  the  per- 
sonnel of  Leopoldville.  The  village,  situated  75 
kilometres  to  the  south  of  this  station,  is  obliged  to 
supply  350  chikwangues. 

In  order  to  equalise  as  far  as  possible  the  burden 


46  The  Congo 

of  this  impost,  the  region  has  be^n  divided  into 
three  zones,  practically  concentric.  The  most  distant 
villages  of  the  first  zone  are  30  kilometres  distant, 
of  the  second  43  kilometres  and  of  the  third  79 
kilometres. 

The  people  in  the  zone  nearest  bring  in  their  chik- 
wangues  every  four  days;  those  in  the  next,  every 
eight  days;  those  from  the  outside  zone,  every 
twelve  days.  As  the  preparation  of  the  chikwan- 
gue  falls  upon  the  v^omen,  the  amount  of  this  im- 
post is  reckoned  for  each  village  according  to  the 
number  of  women  it  contains.  This,  we  are  told, 
is  so  calculated  that  each  woman  must  prepare  as  a 
maximum,  ten  chikwangues  for  the  period-^— four, 
eight  or  twelve  days.  In  fact,  the  quantity  to  be 
furnished  often  falls  below  this  figure;  but  it 
may  happen  that  it  is  exceeded  and  it  may  happen 
that  the  amount  assessed  does  not  vary  with  the 
fluctuations  in  the  population. 

Such  is  the  system.  The  difficulties  are  easily 
seen.  All  of  the  witnesses  who  were  heard  by  the 
Commission  on  this  subject  were  unanimous  in 
criticising  the  large  amount  that  was  imposed  upon 
the  women  of  certain  villages,  the  continuity  of  the 
imposition  and  the  long  journeys  that  had  to  be 
made. 

According  to  the  calculations  made  by  the  offi- 
cials of  the  State,  the  total  amount  of  time  required, 
taking  into  consideration  all  the  various  operations, 
to  make  one  kilogram  of  chikwangue  is  about  one 


Taxation  47 

hour,  of  which  four-fifths  is  contributed  by  the 
v/omen.  Admitting  that  a  ration  of  chikwangue 
weighs  one  and  two-thirds  kilograms,  on  the  aver- 
age, one  sees  that  the  women  of  the  first  zone  who 
make  ten  chikwangues  in  the  four-day  period,  give 
to  the  State  during  the  month  about  one  hundred 
hours  of  labour,  those  in  the  second,  fifty  hours, 
those  in  the  third,  thirty-three.  The  amount  of 
work  devolving  upon  the  women  in  the  first  zone 
ought  to  be  considerably  reduced. 

The  worst  feature  of  this  imposition  is  its  con- 
tinuity. As  the  chikwangue  can  be  preserved  only 
a  few  days,  the  native,  even  by  doubling  his  activ- 
ities, cannot  at  one  time  discharge  his  obligations 
extending  over  a  long  period.  The  imposition, 
even  if  it  does  not  demand  his  entire  time,  loses  a 
part  of  its  real  character  as  a  tax  and  becomes  a 
sort  of  obligatory  labour  since  there  is  ever  before 
the  native  the  thought  of  delivery  that  must  soon  be 
made. 

The  gravest  defect  of  the  system  lies  in  the  obli- 
gation that  the  native,  in  bringing  in  his  presta- 
tions from  the  three  zones  referred  to  above,  must 
make  long  journeys.  It  is  true  that  the  adage 
''  Time  is  money  "  cannot  be  applied  to  the  native 
of  the  Congo  who,  outside  of  the  time  spent  in 
working  for  the  State,  passes  the  greater  part  of 
it  in  idleness;  still  it  is  inadmissible  that  he  should 
be  obliged  to  travel  150  kilometres  to  bring  to  the 
place  of  delivery  a  tax  which  represents  a  value  of 


48  The  Congo 

about  one  franc  and  a  half.  This  remark  is  equally 
just  even  if  it  is  granted  that  the  compensation 
given  to  the  native  represents  the  exact  value  of  the 
article  furnished. 

It  is  quite  true  that  each  contributor,  as  a  rule, 
does  not  bring  to  the  post  the  prestation  which 
falls  upon  him.  Following  the  rule  that  we  have 
observed  in  vogue,  the  labour  is  thrown  upon  the 
weaker  members  of  the  family,  so  that  it  is  the 
women,  children  and  domestic  slaves  who  are  forced 
to  be  the  agencies  of  transport.  This  peculiarity  in- 
stead of  attenuating  the  bad  features  of  the  sys- 
tem, rather  increases  them.  For  it  is  these  who 
form  the  industrious  element  of  the  village,  and 
if  a  great  part  of  their  time  is  taken  up  by  the 
exigencies  of  the  impost  and  procuring  the  means 
for  their  own  subsistence,  they  have  not,  however 
great  may  be  their  desire,  a  chance  to  perform 
other  labour;  hence,  the  abandonment  of  native 
industries  and  the  impoverishment  of  the  villages. 
The  missionaries.  Catholic  and  Protestant,  whom 
we  heard  at  Leopoldville  were  unanimous  in  re- 
porting the  general  misery  which  exists  in  that 
region.  One  of  them  thought  he  could  say :  "  If 
this  system,  which  obliges  the  natives  to  support 
the  3,000  labourers  at  Leopoldville,  continues  for 
five  years,  that  will  be  the  condition  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  district." 

Without  sharing  these  pessimistic  views,  one 
must  admit  that  they  contain  some  truth.     In  any 


Taxation  49 

event,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  danger- 
ous for  the  State  to  rely  upon  the  natives  to  supply 
such  an  important  post  as  this.  Any  circumstance 
that  could  arrest  for  a  time  the  prestations  of  food 
supplies  would  threaten  a  famine. 

This  remark  is  general.  It  applies  to  all  largef 
posts  of  which  we  have  taken  Leopoldville  as  a  type. 

This  was  the  case  at  Coquilhatville  where  the 
Commission  can  attest  the  quantity  of  chikwangues 
furnished  is  often  insufficient,  because  of  certain 
delinquencies,  to  supply  the  large  personnel.  It 
happens  that  part  of  the  workmen,  soldiers  or  pris- 
oners are  deprived  of  rations  for  twenty-four  hours. 
A  high  State  official  states  that  it  is  often  difficult 
to  provision  at  Coquilhatville  the  black  crew  of  the 
steamers  which  pass  this  post. 

The  remedy  for  these  troubles  seems  apparent. 
There  should  be  established  at  once,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  large  centres  of  population,  planta- 
tions for  the  production  of  food  stuffs,  the  size  of 
which  should  be  proportional  to  the  necessities  of 
the  people  to  be  supplied.  The  wives  of  the  soldiers, 
could  be,  in  a  measure,  as  the  law  permits,  employed 
for  this  work  for  which  they  have  a  special  aptitude. 
For,  as  a  Protestant  missionary  and  a  high  official 
remarked,  it  is  not  right  that  by  their  excessive  la- 
bour "  the  native  women  furnish  the  food  to  others 
who  do  nothing  and  spend  their  time  in  gossip  and 
disputes." 

In  the  meantime,  it  would  be  well  if  the  State 


50  The  Congo 

should  provision  partially  the  workmen  at  certain 
posts  with  rice  and  dried  fish,  as  the  railroad  com- 
pany is  now  doing  with  its  employees  in  the  Lower 
Congo. 

In  any  case,  if  the  impossibility  of  reforming  the 
system  at  a  single  stroke  should  oblige  the  State  to 
rely,  for  a  time,  upon  the  natives  for  food,  it  ought 
to  lighten  the  burden  of  transportation  in  the  case 
of  those  who  live  at  a  great  distance.  This  ought 
to  be,  to  as  great  an  extent  as  possible,  supplanted 
by  other  forms  of  transportation,  either  by  animals 
or  motors.  Thus  it  seems  desirable  that  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Leopoldville,  traversed  by  the 
railroad,  the  State  could  make  such  an  arrangement 
with  the  road  as  would  secure  rates  that  would  not 
be  excessive  on  the  chikwangues  coming  from  the 
extreme  southern  portions  of  the  district.  If  the 
experiment  made  during  the  past  year  at  Leopold- 
ville with  camels  proves  successful,  this  means  of 
transportation  ought  to  be  made  general. 

In  addition  to  chikwangue,  dried  fish  plays  an  im- 
portant role  in  supplying  the  wants  of  the  negro. 
Besides  the  few  kilograms  of  fresh  fish,  obtained 
without  difficulty  by  the  whites,  practically  the  en- 
tire catcH  is  dried  for  the  black  employees  of  the 
State. 

The  prestation  of  this  sort  of  food  supplies  causes 
instances  such  as  we  have  pointed  out  in  the  cases 
of  the  chikwangues.  In  many  places  the  quantity 
required  has  caused  complaints,  especially  from  the 


Taxation  51 

chiefs  of  villages  whose  population  has  diminished 
and  who  are  taxed  to  an  extent  out  of  proportion 
to  the  present  number  of  inhabitants. 

We  have  observed  that  certain  places  on  the  river 
not  very  populous,  like  that  of  New  Antwerp,  have 
for  example,  found  themselves  compelled  to  lay 
tribute  upon  fishermen  at  a  distance.  The  natives 
living  near  Lulonga  were  compelled  to  go  in  ca- 
noes to  New  Antwerp,  a  distance  of  from  70  to  80 
kilometres,  every  15  days  to  carry  their  fish  and  the 
contributors  have  been  subjected  to  arrest  for  delays 
for  which  perhaps  they  were  not  to  blame  if  one 
considers  the  distance  to  be  travelled  periodically 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  impost. 

These  great  journeys  are,  as  can  be  seen,  analo- 
gous to  the  onerous  transportation  of  chikwangues. 
Another  criticism,  especially  in  regard  to  this  im- 
post, was  made  by  several  witnesses  who  pointed 
out  to  us  the  difficulty  which  the  natives  experi- 
enced in  furnishing  regularly  their  quota  of  fish  at 
times  when  the  floods  make  fishing  unsafe  and  un- 
profitable. 

The  remark  is  just,  but  the  work  of  fishing  in  high 
watier  might  be  considerably  lightened  if  the  native 
could  use  the  best  appliances.  And  this  leads  us  to 
make  a  general  observation  which  appears  to  us  to 
be  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  provisioning  of  posts. 

We  have  been  surprised  to  notice  how  little  the 
contact  with  the  whites  has  changed  the  ways  of 


52  The  Congo 

\  the  natives.  The  Europeans  have  until  now  limited 
\  themselves  to  teaching  blacks  certain  industries  of 
Itheir  own,  such  as  printing,  ropemaking,  etc.;  but 
they  have  not  attempted  to  improve  the  native  indus- 
tries which  are  of  vital  importance  to  the  negro. 
Thus  the  chikwangue  is  prepared  today  in  exactly 
the  same  way  as  it  was  25  years  ago,  with  methods 
incredibly  crude  and  defective.  It  is  impossible  not 
to  notice  and  be  astonished  at  the  disproportion 
which  exists  between  the  amount  of  labour  ex- 
pended and  the  results  obtained.  It  is  evideat  that 
modern  industries  would  easily  furnish  the  means 
of  reaHsing  in  the  fabrication  of  chikwangue,  prog- 
ress equal  to  that  which  has  been  achieved  in  Europe 
in  the  grinding  of  wheat  and  the  preparation  of 
bread. 

We  also  think  that  in  a  short  time  one  could  cause 
the  native  fishermen  to  make  use  of  the  improved 
appliances,  which  would,  without  doubt,  be  for  them 
a  real  revelation.  In  that  way  the  fishermen  would 
achieve  far  better  results  than  at  the  present  time, 
and  could  not  only  meet  their  obligations  in  a  short- 
er time,  but  derive  a  personal  profit  from  their  catch, 
for  dried  fish,  of  which  the  negro  is  very  fond, 
always  finds  buyers  amongst  the  employees  of  the 
State. 

We,  therefore,  express  the  wish  to  see  the  State 
and  the  Missions  which  have  assumed  the  task  of 
teaching  the  blacks,  diligently  apply  themselves 
in  this  direction,  that  is,  the  practical  education  of 


Taxation  53 

the  natives  in  which,  so  far  as  we  know,  nothing 
has  as  yet  been  done.  / 

There  now  remains  for  us  to  examine  in  order 
to  exhaust  the  Hst  of  food  assessments  the  furnish- 
ing of  fresh  food,  intended  exclusively  for  the  white 
officials.  The  native  is  called  upon  for  game,  small 
animals,  and  poultry.  The  requirements  of  game 
have  not  occasioned  any  criticism  worthy  of  men- 
tion. Still,  we  may  remark  that  complaints  have 
been  made  against  the  law  which  declares  the  closed 
season  during  7  months  of  the  year.  This  long 
interdiction,  we  have  been  told,  can  deprive  the  na- 
tive of  the  food  to  which  he  is  accustomed  and  which 
brings  him  certain  profits.  The  law  against  hunt- 
ing elephants  has  also  been  criticised,  since  it  pre- 
vents the  black  from  protecting  his  plantation 
against  the  damages  caused  by  the  animals. 

Upon  this  last  point  it  should  be  remarked  that 
the  terms  of  Article  12  of  the  Decree  of  October  5, 
1889,  state:  "  Any  person  may,  in  order  to  protect 
his  property  threatened  by  one  or  more  elephants, 
make  use  of  weapons  to  drive  them  away.  If  this 
necessitates  the  capture  or  death  of  an  elephant,  the 
elephant  should  be  turned  over  to  the  District  Com- 
missioners." 

As  to  sheep,  goats,  chickens  and  ducks  the  Com- 
mission is  able  to  confirm  by  its  own  observation 
their  growing  scarcity  and  their  consequent  high 
price. 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  impoverishment?    It  is 


54  The  Cong-o 

caused  by  the  fact  that  these  animals,  instead  of  be- 
ing articles  of  commerce,  are  demanded  under  the 
name  of  imposts,  sometimes  without  reason  and  in 
an  arbitrary  fashion.  The  native  who  receives  a 
compensation  which  is  insufficient  in  his  eyes  and 
in  every  case  quite  inferior  to  the  real  value,  does 
not  feel  encouraged  to  raise  domestic  animals  and 
fowls. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  unanimous  opinion 
that  the  health  of  the  white  man  in  Africa  requires 
that  he  subsist,  at  least  partly,  upon  fresh  food.  As 
it  is  quite  probable  that  for  a  long  time  the  State 
post  will  have  to  depend  for  supply  of  farm  products 
upon  the  natives,  raising  of  these  ought  to  be  en- 
couraged by  every  possible  means,  and  the  State, 
if  need  be,  should  make  sacrifices  in  order  to  achieve 
this  result.  As  a  general  rule,  the  small  animals  and 
the  fowls  ought,  according  to  our  opinion,  to  be  ar- 
ticles of  personal  transactions  between  the  white 
man  and  the  negro. 

C    Imposed  Labour 

Besides  the  levy  of  food  supplies,  the  natives  are 
called  upon  to  furnish  to  the  State  contributions  of 
labour:  for  cutting  wood,  work  around  the  posts, 
rowers  and  porters. 

a.  Cutting  wood.  The  impost  relative  to  wood 
cutting  has  given  rise  to  many  criticisms.  Every- 
one knows  that  the  steamers  which  navigate  the 
Congo  and  its  tributaries  use  nothing  but  wood* 


\ 


Taxation  55 

The  great  proportions  which  the  navigation  has 
assumed  (80  steamers),  and  the  necessity  of  re- 
wooding  every  day,  have  called  into  existence  along 
these  rivers  wood  stations.  Sometimes  the  furnish- 
ing of  wood  imposes  a  heavy  tax  upon  the  natives; 
sometimes  the  work  is  done  by  men  who  receive 
wages.  There  also  exists  a  composite  system  which 
consists  in  part  of  men  who  have  been  requisitioned 
and  men  who  are  paid. 

We  have  been  told  that  this  impost  is  excessive  in 
certain  cases.  It  is  also  claimed  that  it  is  occasion- 
ally irregularly  distributed  amongst  the  villages. 
Thus,  the  groups  near  Lulonga  where  there  are 
respectively  7,  8,  17,  20,  19,  39,  and  99  men  are 
subject  to  the  same  tax  —  25  armloads  per  village. 
The  presence  at  the  post  of  paid  cutters  who  have 
to  assist  the  contributory  cutters  in  preparing  the 
wood,  instead  of  being  a  help  is  a  new  source  of 
trouble.  Those  under  pay  endeavour  to  throw  their 
tasks  upon  the  others.  Thus,  the  choppers  at  Lu- 
longa are  a  plague  in  that  region  and  the  bosses, 
or  black  superintendents,  very  often  become  real 
despots  and  cause  serious  difficulties. 

Our  attention  was  also  called  to  an  annoying 
feature  which  results  from  unexpected  requisitions. 
But  this  criticism  has  but  little  foundation  because 
the  natives,  having  the  privilege  to  work  ahead 
(which  we  are  sure  is  not  often  done  on  the  Congo), 
can  easily  have  a  reserve  so  that  they  can  work  at 
such  times  as  they  may  choose. 


56  The  Congo 

Nevertheless,  the  inconveniences  of  the  system 
are  sufficiently  serious  to  cause  us  to  conclude  that 
it  would  be  v^^ell  to  suppress  all  imposts  of  wood  for 
steaming  purposes  and  to  replace  it  with  the  plan 
of  having  all  wood  supplied  by  paid  choppers. 

In  paying  the  choppers  a  fixed  amount  not  above 
the  remuneration  allowed  the  natives  at  the  present 
time  for  wood  furnished  upon  the  river  bank,  excel- 
lent results,  it  seems,  have  been  obtained.  The  ex- 
periment was  tried  at  Bolombo,  near  New  Antwerp. 
The  wooding  of  steamers  would  in  this  way  be 
assured  more  completely  than  by  following  the  sys- 
tem now  in  vogue. 

b.  Labour,  When  the  black  personnel  at  a  post 
is  not  sufficient  for  certain  work  of  construction, 
clearing,  or  farming,  it  frequently  happens  that  de- 
mands are  made  upon  the  natives  under  the  form 
of  imposed  labour  with  remuneration.  They  are 
also  called  upon  to  repair  the  roads,  keep  in  order 
the  telegraph  lines,  etc.  Sometimes  they  must  sup- 
ply construction  material,  such  as  logs,  leaves,  and 
bamboos.  This  imposed  labour  is  generally  looked 
upon  by  the  natives  with  disfavour.  It  obliges,  in 
certain  cases,  the  natives  near  a  post  to  be  continu- 
ally at  work.  On  the  other  hand,  the  demands  are 
for  work  of  an  emergency  character,  depending 
solely  upon  the  necessities  of  the  post.  If  a  storm 
destroys  the  roof  of  one  of  the  post  buildings,  the 
chief  immediately  requisitions  a  certain  number  of 
natives  of  the  nearest  village  to  repair  the  damage. 


Taxation  57 

In  case  there  is  lacking  the  necessary  men  for  the 
clearing  of  a  forest  for  the  enlargement  of  the  plan- 
tation, the  chief  of  that  department  calls  upon  the 
natives  to  lend  a  hand.  One  can  understand  the 
perturbation  which  such  demands  can  provoke  in 
the  minds  of  people  as  indolent  as  these  blacks. 

In  the  region  of  Lake  Tumba,  the  Commission  of 
enquiry  heard  the  echoes  of  the  complaint  awakened 
by  the  requisition  at  Bikoro  of  women  from  the  vil- 
lages of  Ikoko  who  had  to  work  for  fifteen  days  on 
the  plantations.  This  line  of  action  seems  to  have 
greatly  displeased  the  natives  who ,  look  upon  the 
deprivation  of  their  wives  for  this  length  of  time  as 
a  serious  grievance. 

Similiar  requisitions  appear  to  have  caused  the 
removal  of  an  entire  village  (Bokatola,  near  Mam- 
poko  on  the  Lulonga).  We  add,  however,  to  be 
just,  that  in  most  of  the  cases,  if  the  women  are 
requisitioned  for  work,  it  is  because  when  the  chiefs 
of  the  post  call  for  labour,  the  men  seek  to  free 
themselves  from  the  burden  and  send  their  wives. 

c.  Rowers.  The  matter  of  impressed  labour 
for  rowing  did  not  call  forth  any  criticisms  beyond 
those  which  resulted  from  the  unexpected  calling 
for  men  and  sometimes  the  excessive  duration  of 
the  service.  Under  present  conditions  it  cannot  be 
suppressed.  Whenever  possible,  it  is  better  to  es- 
tablish a  regular  service  of  paid  rowers. 

d.  Porters.      Without   doubt   the   form   of   im- 1 
pressed  labour  that  weighs  most  heavily  upon  the/ 


58  The  Congo 

natives  is  the  service  as  porters.  Thanks  to  the 
marvellous  net  of  streams  with  which  central  Africa 
is  blessed,  the  greatest  part  of  the  transportation 
can  be  made  by  water.  But  in  those  regions  which 
are  not  intersected  by  streams  and  owing  to  all  ef- 
forts to  acclimatise  animals  to  the  country  having 
thus  far  failed,  the  only  agency  of  transportation 
that  remains  is  man.  The  traveller  in  crossing  the 
country;  the  merchant  in  introducing  his  wares; 
the  State  in  supplying  its  officials  with  food,  trans- 
porting material  or  bringing  out  the  products  of 
its  domain,  have  no  other  means  available  than  a 
corps  of  porters. 

The  most  celebrated  of  these  routes  of  caravan 
travel  in  Africa  belongs  to  history.  For  a  dozen 
years  it  was  necessary  to  rely  upon  this  system  in 
j  order  to  insure  regular  communication  between  the 
Upper  and  the  Lower  Congo.  In  the  regions  known 
as  the  Cataracts,  between  Matadi  and  Leopoldville, 
where  the  great  river,  intersected  by  cataracts,  is 
not  navigable,  caravans  of  native  porters  could  be 
seen  in  a  constant  stream  carrying  upon  their  heads 
innumerable  articles  that  were  impatiently  awaited 
by  the  whites  on  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Congo. 

Truly  the  labour  of  these  Cataract  people  was 
of  a  rude  sort  but  it  was  necessary  for  carrying  on 
the  civilisation  of  the  country.  There  was  the 
necessity  to  place  upon  its  banks,  piece  by  piece, 
the  steamboats  to  sail  the  upper  river  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.     Any  delay  in  the  carry- 


Taxation  59 

ing  of  these  parts  and  in  launching  the  steamer  en- 
dangered the  existence  of  the  posts  beyond.  Finally 
the  railroad  was  finished  and  at  what  price!  and 
the  locomotive  reached  the  Pool. 

The  caravan  route  where  black  and  white,  united 
in  the  same  effort,  had  paid  such  a  heavy  tribute  to 
fatigue  and  fever,  the  dark  pathway  holding  in  its 
keeping  so  many  lifeless  bodies,  has  been  invaded  by 
the  plants  and  the  trees  of  the  forest.  In  two  days 
the  trains  now  go  from  Matadi  to  Leopoldville  and 
from  the  Pool  to  the  lower  river;  the  natives  are 
born  again  to  a  new  life;  those  who  had  fled  from 
the  destructive  enforced  labour  now  approach  the 
iron  road  where  they  regard  with  admiration  the 
elegant  and  powerful  engines  created  by  the  **  magic 
of  the  white  man  "  (mayele  ma  mondele)  doing 
without  effort  the  labour  that  had  decimated  their 
ancestors. 

But  for  every  route  which  has  disappeared,  many 
others  have  been  called  into  existence  as  the  new  re- 
gions have  been  opened  up  by  the  State.  The  com- 
plete occupation  of  frontier  districts,  notably  the 
Lado  country,  the  zones  of  Kivu  and  of  Tanganika, 
the  territories  of  Katanga  and  of  Southern  Kasai 
(Lake  Dilolo),  has  necessitated  the  sending  to  these 
distant  regions  a  large  amount  of  material. 

The  Commission  was  not  able  to  study  on  the 
spot  the  porterage  problem.  But  it  received  on  two 
of  these  routes,  that  of  Kasongo-Kabambare-Kivu 
and  that  of  Lusambo-Kabinda-Kisenga,  considerable 


6o  The  Congo 

light.  In  the  two  regions  of  the  Eastern  Province 
and  Kasai-Katanga  the  quantity  of  loads  to  be  car- 
ried is  enormous  and  on  the  contrary  the  popula- 
tion is  relatively  sparse.  Moreover,  the  occu- 
pation is  not  sufficiently  complete  to  permit  the 
drafting  from  new  tribes  so  that  it  happens  that  it 
is  practically  the  same  people  who  are  repeatedly 
drafted.  Let  us  add  that  the  food  supplies  are  hard- 
ly sufficient  to  always  furnish  the  carriers  with 
rations. 

Some  judges  called  our  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  system  of  drafted  labour  exhausts  the  natives 
and  threatens  them  with  partial  destruction. 

There  is  a  way  to  remedy,  without  delay,  this 
state  of  affairs.  The  building  of  railroads  in  these 
regions  can  be  foreseen  only  for  the  distant  future. 
However,  there  is  reason  to  hope  for  good  results 
from  the  experiments  already  tried  in  the  direction 
of  trained  elephants,  zebras  and  camels.  But,  in  the 
meantime,  it  is  important  to  diminish  as  far  as  one 
can  the  hurtful  character  of  the  drafted  carrier  ser- 
vice by  utilising  the  waterways  whenever  possible, 
even  if  the  distance  be  greater  and  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation more. 

If  roads  suitable  for  automobiles  could  be  built 
in  this  part  of  the  territory,  the  State  should  hasten 
to  begin  the  work  and  omit  nothing  in  this  direc- 
tion. Intensive  porterage  can  be  justified  only 
under  the  twofold  condition  of  being  essential  and 
temporary. 


Taxation  6i 

In  so  far  as  concerns  the  transportation  for  the 
eastern  frontier  (Kivu),  it  seems  that  the  route 
from  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa  could  be  used  more 
cheaply. 

To  obviate  the  scarcity  of  food  supplies  along  the 
routes,  there  should  be  created  at  intervals  fixed  by 
the  State,  villages  whose  inhabitants  should  be 
wholly  occupied  with  farming. 

The  Government  has  already  issued  orders  look- 
ing towards  this. 

It  is  likewise  desirable  that  the  tasks  be  distrib- 
uted so  widely  that  the  draft  for  labour  may  not 
fall  too  frequently  upon  the  same  village  or  upon  the 
same  persons.  To  bring  this  about,  the  chief  of  the 
post  should  himself  supervise  the  recruiting  and 
it  should  not  be  left  to  the  foremen  who  are  too 
easily  bribed. 

The  sick,  infirm  and  the  children  ought  to  be 
exempt  as  prescribed  by  law. 

Above  all  things,  before  undertaking  in  distant 
regions  a  work  of  any  consequence,  a  careful  study 
should  be  made  of  the  routes  and  the  means  of 
transportation,  and  every  effort  should  be  made  to 
ascertain  if  the  object  in  view  can  be  attained  with- 
out imposing  too  heavy  burdens  upon  the  natives. 

D.    Products  of  the  Domain 

a.  Copal.  The  gathering  of  copal  presents  no 
difficulty;  even  the  children  can  take  part  in  this 
whether  one  collects  the  "  fossil "  copal  which  the 


62  The  Congo 

rivers  and  lakes  cast  upon  their  shores  or  the 
resin  from  the  trees  themselves  or  that  which  falls 
from  the  trees  and  is  found  on  the  ground  around 
the  foot  of  the  tree.  The  copal  gum  is  abundant  in 
certain  forests. 

The  Commission  did  not  hear  any  complaints  re- 
garding this  impost. 

The  compensation  paid  per  kilogram  is,  as  a  rule, 
sufficient  to  enable  a  native  who  desires  to  exert 
himself  a  little  to  make  good  wages.  Those  who 
have  criticised  the  small  pay  allowed  have  had  in 
mind  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  copal  in  the  Euro- 
pean market.  This  criticism  contains  the  germ  of 
false  reasoning.  In  considering  the  products  gath- 
ered from  public  domain  attention  should  be  paid 
to  the  amount  of  labour  required  to  gather  them 
and  not  to  the  value  of  the  articles.  It  is  surely 
true  in  Europe  as  well  as  elsewhere,  that  the  wages 
paid  the  miners  of  the  precious  metals,  for  example, 
are  far  below  the  actual  value  of  the  minerals 
produced. 

&.  Rubber.  Every  one  knows  that  the  usual 
way  of  obtaining  rubber  is  by  making  incisions  in 
the  bark  of  certain  trees  (especially  in  certain 
vines),  and  gathering  the  milk,  or  sap,  that  comes 
therefrom.  After  a  few  hours  the  receptacle  is 
emptied,  the  milk  is  coagulated  and  the  rubber  is 
carried  to  the  post  under  forms  that  vary  in  the  dif- 
ferent regions.  Of  all  the  milky  plants,  the  vines 
which  furnish  the  greater  part  of  the  rubber  coming 


Taxation  63 

from  the  Congo  are  the  Landolphia  and  the  Cli- 
tandra. 

In  spite  of  the  regulations  made  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  vines  the  natives,  instead  of  simply 
making  incisions,  will  cut  them  completely  off  so 
that  the  milk  will  flow  more  freely. 

Of  course,  the  Commission  could  not  form  any 
estimate  of  the  wealth  in  rubber  vines  of  the  forests 
it  saw.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  question  of  quantity 
in  a  matter  of  such  importance  receives  widely  di- 
vergent answers.  Optimism  and  pessimism  give 
the  estimate  and  reflect  the  desires  entertained  or 
the  purpose  in  view  in  the  minds  of  those  expressing 
the  opinion.  Still  it  appears  to  be  undoubtedly  true 
that  an  exploitation  which  has  continued  a  certain 
number  of  years  will  lead  to  a  complete  exhaustion 
in  those  regions  contiguous  to  the  native  villages. 

This  explains  the  dislike  on  the  part  of  the  ne- 
groes for  rubber  gathering,  which  in  itself  is  not  at 
all  severe.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  he  must  make  a 
journey  every  fortnight  which  takes  two  or  three    ' 
days,  sometimes  more,  in  order  to  reach  that  part 
of  the  forest  where  he  can  find  in  sufficient  quantity        \J 
the  rubber  vines.     There  for  a  certain  number  of 
days  he  leads  an  uncomfortable  existence.    He  must 
construct  for  himself  a  temporary  shelter,   which 
certainly  can  not  take  the  place  of  his  hut;  he  does 
not  have  the  food  to  which  he  is  accustomed,  he  is    , 
deprived  of  his  wife,  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of 
the  weather  and  to  the  attacks  of  wild  beasts.     He 


64  The  Congo 

must  carry  what  he  has  gathered  to  the  State  post 
or  to  the  company  and  not  until  then  does  he  return 
to  his  village  where  he  can  tarry  only  two  or  three 
days  before  the  time  for  the  next  delivery  is  close  at 
?^  j  hand.  It  therefore  appears  that,  whatever  be  his 
'  activity  in  the  rubber  forests,  the  native,  because  of 
the  number  of  moves  which  he  must  make,  sees  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  taken  up  in  the  gathering 
of  rubber. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  this  state  of 
affairs  is  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  law  of  ''  forty 
hours."  According  to  our  opinion,  the  only  way  to 
harmonise  the  text  and  the  spirit  of  this  law  will  be 
to  make  the  times  of  delivery  further  apart.  In  this 
way  the  time  of  the  native  taken  up  by  the  necessary 
trips  to  go  to  the  forests  and  return  would  be  less- 
ened in  proportion  and  the  decree  which  fixes  at 
forty  hours  a  month  the  labour  demanded  of  the 
contributor  could  receive  a  just  application  if  the 
quantity  of  rubber  demanded  is  wisely  fixed.  It 
would  cease  to  be  as  now,  a  maximum  rarely 
reached  and  which  may  be  thought  too  great.^ 

^  The  quantity  of  rubber  which  the  native  is  compelled  to 
procure,  under  the  name  of  an  impost,  varies,  usually,  accord- 
ing to  the  locality.  It  would  be  impossible  for  the  Commis- 
sion to  point  out,  even  approximately,  the  quantity  which  the 
native,  after  reaching  the  forests  in  which  he  gathers,  can 
collect  in  forty  hours  of  labour.  The  most  widely  different 
opinions  have  been  expressed  on  this  subject.  Everything 
depends  upon  the  richness  of  the  forest  and  sometimes  upon 
chance.    But  the  fact  verified  in  Abir  and  also  pointed  out 


Taxation  65 

Attention  has  been  called  to  the  improvidence 
which  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  character  of  the  native 
and  which  will  always  tempt  him  to  put  off  the 
moment  when  he  should  discharge  his  obligations. 
However,  we  think  that  without  great  incon- 
venience, the  contributor  could  discharge  his  duties 
every  three  months,  for  example,  and  that  when- 
ever necessary  the  white  should  remind  him  of  the 
neglect  of  his  duty.  The  stay  in  the  forest  would 
become  longer  but  less  frequent,  the  gatherer  would 
then  think  it  best,  without  doubt,  to  build  for  him- 
self a  better  shelter  and  would  have  with  him  his 
wife  who  could  prepare  for  him  his  customary 
food. 

More  than  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Commis- 
sion, the  impost  ought  to  be  collective  because  of 
the  difficulty  in  making  the  proper  lists;  the  incon- 
veniences resulting  from  placing  the  times  of  collec- 
tion further  apart  will  be  diminished;  and  consid- 
eration should  be  given,  to  a  greater  degree,  to  the 
personal  convenience  of  the  contributors. 

It  follows  that  if,  in  certain  cases,  the  collective 
imposts  having  as  corollary  the  placing  of  collec- 
tions further  apart  is  not  wise,  it  would  be  de- 
sirable in  calculating  the  hours  of  labour  to  have 
regard  for  the  time  which  the  native  would  con- 
everywhere  that  the  native  after  a  long  stay  in  the  forest  often 
brings  a  quantity  of  rubber  far  below  the  amount  of  the  im- 
post, causes  us  to  think  that  the  amount  is,  in  general,  too 
great. 


66  The  Congo 

sume  for  the  necessary  journeys  in  gathering  the 
rubber. 

Coercion 

The  dislike  of  the  negro  for  all  kinds  of  work; 
his  especial  aversion  to  the  rubber  gathering,  be- 
cause of  the  circumstances  indicated,  and  differing 
from  the  labour  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapters 
V  because  the  native  has  not  been  prepared  for  it  by 
the  customs  of  previous  generations;  finally  the 
contact  with  the  white,  which,  having  existed  for 
only  a  short  time,  has  not  created  in  him  new  wants 
which  make  him  almost  indifferent  to  the  proffered 
remuneration ;  all  of  these  circumstances  have  made 
compulsion  necessary  to  induce  the  native  to  gather 
rubber. 

Until  recent  years  this  coercion  has  been  exer- 
cised in  different  ways,  such  as,  the  taking  of  hos- 
tages, the  detention  of  chiefs  and  the  institution  of 
sentinels  or  bosses  and  the  sending  of  armed  expe- 
ditions. 

J.    Coercion,  Properly  so  Called,  Exercised  by 
the  Whites 

In  the  absence  of  a  specific  law  and  precise  in- 
struction upon  the  subject,  the  agents  charged  with 
the  exercise  of  coercion,  applying  the  principle  of 
solidarity  which  exists  amongst  those  who  are  the 
subjects  of  the  same  chief,  often  trouble  themselves 


Taxation  67 

but  little  to  seek  out  the  real  culprit.  The  presta- 
tions were  due  from  the  village  as  a  whole;  when 
they  were  not  forthcoming  the  chiefs  were  arrested 
and  some  of  the  inhabitants  taken  at  random,  often 
the  women  were  held  as  hostages.  This  system 
had  for  its  purpose  the  moral  compulsion  upon  the 
delinquents  to  stimulate  their  efforts  in  order  to 
liberate  their  chief  or  their  wives.  This  proved  ef- 
ficacious and,  perhaps,  as  we  were  often  told,  did 
not  appear  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives,  imbued  with 
the  idea  of  solidarity,  so  reprehensible  as  it  would  to 
us.  But  whatever  one  may  think  of  the  ideas  of  the 
natives,  any  procedure,  such  as  the  detention  of  the 
women  as  hostages,  outrages  our  notion  of  justice 
too  violently  to  be  tolerated.  The  State  has,  for 
a  long  time,  forbidden  this  practice,  but  has  been 
unable  to  suppress  it.  Likewise  the  arrest  of  the 
chiefs,  who  are  not  always  personally  to  blame,  has 
the  effect  of  diminishing  their  authority  or  even 
completely  destroying  it;  especially  when  they  are 
seen  forced  to  servile  labour. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  system  by  which  the 
agents  fix  the  length  of  the  detention.  From  the 
statements  of  witnesses  and  the  official  documents 
that  we  saw,  we  found  that  this  detention  may  have 
been  continued,  in  certain  cases,  for  several  months. 

Some  have  told  us,  it  is  true,  that  those  under  de- 
tention at  the  post  are  not  badly  treated  nor  com- 
pelled to  perform  excessive  labour.  They  have  also 
asserted  that  the  lot  of  the  women  is  less  oppressive 


68  The  Congo 

here  than  under  the  animal-Uke  existence  to  which 
they  are  subjected  in  their  own  villages.  Never- 
theless, it  is  beyond  question  that  the  detention  is 
often  aggravated  by  conditions  which  attend  it. 
We  have  been  told  that  the  places  in  which  the  pris- 
oners were  kept  were  sometimes  in  a  bad  condition, 
that  they  often  lacked  the  necessities  and  that  the 
mortality  amongst  them  was  very  great. 

Some  chiefs  of  posts,  assuming  a  right  that  never 
belonged  to  them  administer  the  lash  to  those  who 
fail  to  furnish  the  complete  imposts.  Some  have 
carried  this  to  excess,  as  is  shown  by  the  record  of 
their  punishment  by  the  courts.^ 

These  abuses  are  certainly  not  unknown  in  the 
private  domain.  From  a  study  of  the  documents 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Commission  or  de- 
manded by  it,  we  became  acquainted  with  the 
majority  of  the  facts  testified  to  by  the  Reverends 
Whitehead  (Lukolela),  Weeks  (Monsembe),  and 
Gilchrist  (Lulonga). 

Acts  of  violence  have  been  committed  in  the  re- 
gion of  Lake  Leopold  II,  Bangala,  Lake  Tumba,  in 
\  Uele  and  Aruwini.  But  all  witnesses  confess  that 
I  great  improvements  have  taken  place  in  recent  times. 
Two  Evangelical  missionaries  from  the  district  of 
Lake  Leopold  II  (the  Crown  Domain  exploited  by 
State  agents),  where  the  rule  had  been  the  object 
of  very  severe  criticism  by  one  of  them,  said  to  us : 

*  The  blacks  who  are  assigned  to  guard  the  prisoners  oc- 
casionally overstep  their  authority  and  become  brutal. 


Taxation  6q 

"  according  to  what  we  have  been  told,  everything  is 
now  going  well  in  this  region  '' ;  and  the  other  said, 
that  he  had  observed  during  a  recent  visit  to  this 
district,  that  the  situation  was  good  in  comparison 
with  what  it  had  been  before. 

Unfortunately,  the  same  does  not  seem  to  be  true 
in  those  regions  exploited  by  private  companies. 
From  an  examination  of  documents  regarding 
Mongala,^  and  a  careful  enquiry  made  by  the  Com- 
mission in  regard  to  the  Abir  concession  it  appears 
that  acts  of  the  sort  of  which  we  are  speaking,  were 
very  frequent  in  the  territory  controlled  by  these 
companies.  At  the  different  posts  in  the  Abir  which 
we  visited,  it  was  never  denied  that  the  imprison- 
ment of  women  as  hostages,  the  imposition  of  ser- 
vile work  on  chiefs,  the  administration  of  the  lash 
to  delinquents  and  the  abuse  of  authority  by  the 
black  overseers  were,  as  a  rule,  habitual. 

Similar  conditions  have  been  reported  to  the 
Commission  from  Lulonga. 

Most  of  these  facts  were  unknown  to  the  officials 
until  a  recent  enquiry  of  a  deputy  revealed  them,  so 
that  it  is  likely  that  the  freedom  from  punishment 
was  accountable  for  their  continuance. 

In  case  of  the  non-payment  of  prestations  and 
also  under  the  name  of  punishment  for  a  revolt,  it 
has  happened  that  the  civil  officials  or  military 
officer  imposed  upon  the  villages  fines,  sometimes 

*  Our  information  regarding  Mongala  covers  the  period 
during  which  this  region  was  exploited  by  the  S.  C.  A. 


70  The  Congo 

very  heavy.  This  has  been  suppressed.  A  circular 
from  the  Governor  General  forbids  the  ''  adminis- 
trative fines." 

2.    The  Sentries 

One  means  by  sentries  {sentili,  native  word, 
taken  from  the  English)  the  black  overseers,  armed 
with  a  muzzle-loading  gun,  who  have  the  official 
duty  of  directing  the  work  of  the  natives  in  the  for- 
est and  of  preventing  the  devastation  of  the  same  by 
the  cutting  of  the  rubber  vines,  but  whose  labours 
for  the  greater  part  of  their  time,  are  limited  to  call- 
ing to  the  minds  of  the  natives  their  obligations, 
seeing  to  it  that  they  go  to  the  forest  and  accom- 
pany the  gatherers  when  they  come  to  the  post. 

Two  kinds  of  sentries  can  be  distinguished. 

Amongst  the  overseers,  some,  who  belong  to  the 
personnel  of  the  post  and  who  are  nearly  always 
strangers  to  the  region,  patrol  the  villages  at  the 
time  when  the  natives  should  be  at  work,  and  report 
to  the  whites  those  who  instead  of  being  at  work 
are  staying  at  home.  Very  often,  in  order  to  exer- 
cise a  more  complete  control,  they  are  detailed  to  a 
special  village  where  they  permanently  establish 
themselves.  These  are  the  sentilis,  strictly  speak- 
ing. They  are  by  far  the  worst  sort.  In  their 
quality  as  strangers,  they  are  not  interested  in  the 
blacks  with  whom  they  deal. 

Other  intermediaries  —  called  capjtas  —  are  cho- 
sen by  the  whites  from  the  village  they  have  to 


Taxation  71 

oversee.  Over  against  the  chief  designated  by 
native  customs,  they  represent  in  the  eyes  of  the 
negro  the  State  or  the  company. 

This  institution  of  having  black  overseers  has 
given  rise  to  much  criticism,  even  from  State  of- 
ficials. The  Protestant  missionaries  heard  at  Bo- 
lobo,  Ikoko  (Lake  Tumba),  Lulonga,  Bonginda, 
Ikau,  Baringa,  Bongandanga,  made  very  sweeping 
charges  against  the  conduct  of  these  overseers. 
They  brought  before  the  Commission  a  number  of 
witnesses  who  disclosed  many  crimes  or  excesses 
committed  by  the  sentries.  According  to  these  wit- 
nesses, these  auxiliaries,  especially  those  who  are 
detailed  to  the  villages,  abuse  the  authority  com- 
mitted to  them,  transform  themselves  into  despots, 
demanding  wives,  food  not  only  for  themselves  but 
also  for  a  retinue  of  parasites  and  vagrants  who, 
drawn  by  a  love  for  rapine,  become  their  associates  | 
and  form  a  sort  of  body-guard;  they  kill  without  ; 
pity  those  who  make  the  least  show  of  resistance  to  j 
complying  with  their  demands  or  caprice.  ] 

The  Commission  could  not,  of  course,  verify  in 
every  case  the  correctness  of  these  charges,  many 
of  which  date  back  several  years.  However,  the 
essential  features  of  the  accusations  made  against 
the  sentries  seem  to  be  established  from  the  com- 
bined testimony  and  the  official  reports.  The  Com- 
mission has  transmitted  to  the  appropriate  author- 
ities the  minutes  of  its  enquiry  in  Abir,  Lulonga, 
and  Bolobo  in  so  far  as  they  refer  to  punishable  of- 


72  The  Cong-o 

fences  and  crimes  not  barred  by  the  statute  of 
limitation. 

It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  say,  even  approxi- 
mately, how  many  abuses  these  sentries  have  com- 
mitted. Several  chiefs  in  the  Baringa  region 
brought  to  us  a  bunch  of  sticks,  each  one  of  which 
was  said  to  represent  a  subject  killed  by  the  capitas. 
One  of  them  declared  that  in  his  village  one  hundred 
and  twenty  had  been  killed  during  the  past  years. 
Whatever  one  may  think  of  the  amount  of  con- 
fidence that  should  be  placed  in  a  record  of  this 
sort,  a  document  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Com- 
mission by  the  Director  of  the  Abir  in  Africa  does 
not  permit  of  any  doubt  as  to  the  baneful  character 
of  this  institution.  It  consists  of  a  table  showing 
that  from  the  first  of  January,  1905,  to  the  first  of 
August  of  the  same  year,  that  is,  a  period  of  seven 
months,  one  hundred  and  forty-two  sentries  of  the 
company  had  been  killed  or  wounded  by  the  natives. 
^  Now,  it  can  be  supposed  that  in  many  cases  these 
attacks  were  in  the  nature  of  reprisals.  This 
enables  a  judgment  to  be  formed  of  the  number  of 
sanguinary  conflicts  occasioned  by  the  presence  of 
the  sentries.  None  of  the  agents  who  testified  be- 
fore the  Commission,  or  were  present  at  the  sessions, 
made  any  attempt  to  refute  the  charges  made 
against  the  sentries. 

The  least  unfavourable  opinion  expressed  in  re- 
gard to  the  sentries  was  made  by  the  Director  of 
the  Abir  who  said :  "  The  sentry  system  is  an  evil, 


Taxation  73 

but  it  is  a  necessary  evil."  We  do  not  share  this 
view.  According  to  our  opinion,  the  institution  of 
capitas  and  sentries,  as  v^e  have  seen  it  operate  in 
Abir  and  Lulonga,  ought  to  be  suppressed. 

The  State,  w^hose  high  officials  have,  in  their 
reports,  pointed  out  the  abuses  which  this  system 
calls  forth,  has  taken  a  step  in  this  direction  by  ab- 
solutely prohibiting  the  detachment  in  the  villages 
of  the  members  of  the  constabulary  and  the  send- 
ing, in  general,  of  black  soldiers  unless  accompanied 
by  a  white  man.  The  auxiliaries  have  been  dis- 
pensed with  in  the  Eastern  Province.  But,  let  us 
repeat,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  go  still  further 
and  put  an  end  once  and  for  all  to  the  sentry  system 
as  we  have  seen  it  work.  The  intermediary  between 
the  white  man  and  the  natives  ought  to  be,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  village  chief.  The  authority  of  the 
legal  chiefs,  which  has  been  eclipsed  because  of  the 
sentry  system,  would  be  restored  by  its  disappear- 
ance. 

In  order  to  effectually  apply  the  propositions 
which  we  have  just  made,  the  State  should  with- 
draw the  permission  granted  to  the  capitas  to  carry 
arms  and  should  require  the  companies  to  return 
all  the  guns  with  the  exception  of  the  flint-lock 
guns,  the  albini  rifles  issued  regularly  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  factories  and  the  whites,  and  also  the 
personal  arms  of  the  latter. 


74  The  Congo 


General  Observations  on   Imposts 

We  have,  in  studying  the  different  imposts, 
pointed  out  especial  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
collection  of  each  and  indicated  some  practical 
remedies  intended  to  eliminate  certain  abuses  that 
were  reported.  It  now  remains  for  us  to  enunciate 
the  general  principle  which,  according  to  us,  ought 
to  guide  the  State  in  this  delicate  matter  of  native 
imposts. 

First  of  all,  we  ought  to  give  an  answer  to  the 
important  question:  Should  imposts  be  collective 
or  individual? 

Article  II  of  the  law  of  November  i8,  1893,  de- 
clares that  the  imposts  are  fixed  according  to  lists 
made  out  by  the  District  Commissioners  indicating 
by  name  all  of  the  contributors. 

It  is  true,  as  a  practical  proposition,  that  a  personal 
tax  is  more  logical  and  more  just  than  a  contri- 
bution made  as  a  collectivity.  This  principle  ought 
to  rest  in  the  law  as  an  ideal  towards  which  there 
should  be  a  tendency  and  which  should  be  attained 
wherever  circumstances  could  permit.  But  at  the 
present,  in  many  cases,  insurmountable  obstacles 
exist  which  prevent  its  application. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that,  very  often, 
the  preparation  of  the  lists  provided  by  the  law  is,  if 
not  impossible,  at  least  very  difficult. 

The  natives,  in  fact,  are  not,  with  rare  exceptions. 


Taxation  75 

registered.  Many  of  them  are  Nomads  or  change 
their  residences  with  great  facility.  Their  names 
are  not  fixed  and  could  serve  only  incompletely 
for  the  identification  of  the  contributors.  They  are 
repeated  and  changed  very  frequently.  With  the 
Mongo,  for  example,  the  native  who  has  a  son  is 
known  only  as  the  father  of  his  son.^ 

Even  though  this  list  might  be  made  with  great 
care  and  absolutely  exact  today,  it  would  be  of  no 
value  in  a  few  months. 

The  making  of  these  lists,  to  be  of  any  value  at 
all,  would  require  amongst  other  things  a  larger 
amount  of  work  than  could  be  assigned  to  the 
agents  now  on  duty,  for  they,  already  overburdened 
with  duties,  are  scarcely  sufficient  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  service. 

Finally  the  collection  of  the  prestation  due  from 
each  native  would  impose  upon  the  agents  a  com- 
plicated system  of  accounts. 

The  collective  imposts,  on  the  contrary,  being 
fixed  by  the  villages  would  simplify  very  much  the 
labour  of  preparing  the  lists  and  making  the  col- 
lection. 

This  system  besides,  even  if  it  does  appear  con- 
trary to  our  ideas,  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the 
habits  of  the  natives.  We  have  shown  to  what 
extent  in  the  Congo  the  individual  is  lost  in  the 

^  For  example,  the  native  named  Lisambo  became  the  father 
of  a  boy  Kaisu.  From  that  time  he  took  the  name  Isekaisu, 
father  of  Kaisu. 


76  The  Congo 

collectivity.  Not  only  the  ownership  of  land  and 
plantations  but  also,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the 
responsibilities  are,  according  to  custom,  collective. 

We  think  it  best  to  return  to  the  method  of  col- 
lective imposts,  though  we  are  far  from  ignoring  its 
imperfections,  especially  in  as  much  as  regards  the 
just  division  of  labour. 

Each  year  the  amount  of  impost  should  be  fixed 
for  a  village  according  to  the  approximate  number 
of  the  inhabitants.  The  chiefs  would  see,  under  the 
control  of  the  authorities,  to  the  distribution  and  to 
the  collection  of  the  impost.  They  would  be  in 
return  for  this  exempted  from  the  present  services 
and  would  receive  the  support  and  protection  of 
the  State.  They  would  report  the  delinquents  to  a 
white  man.  He  would  require  the  chief  to  turn 
such  over  to  him,  and  in  case  of  necessity  would 
arrest  those  who,  because  of  their  repeated  refusal 
to  pay  their  impost,  should  make  themselves  liable 
to  the  coercive  measures. 

In  this  system  which  we  propose  it  can  be  seen 
that  the  chiefs  will  be  called  upon  to  play  an  im- 
portant role.  In  order  that  they  may  be  equipped 
for  the  successful  discharge  of  their  duties,  the 
State  ought  to  begin  by  confirming  and  exalting 
their  authority  over  their  tribes. 

Their  rights  and  their  powers  over  their  subjects 
should,  in  so  far  as  they  are  compatible  with  the 
general  laws  of  the  State,  be  recognised  and  en- 
dorsed. 


Taxation  77 

The  local  government  has,  especially  in  this  latter 
day,  given  instructions  of  this  sort ;  but,  as  we  have 
said  above,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  many  of  the 
officials,  especially  the  chiefs  of  posts  and  sub- 
agents,  have  often  followed  the  opposite  principle. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  chiefs  have  been  used 
for  obtaining  work  and  prestations  from  the  natives, 
making  them  personally  responsible  for  all  of  the 
delinquencies  and  all  sorts  of  faults  of  their  people 
without  recognising  any  authority  or  any  rights 
on  their  part.  Therefore  many  of  them  have  de- 
serted or  hidden  themselves;  others  steadfastly 
refused  to  come  into  contact  with  the  white  men. 
These  chiefs  ought  to  realise  that  they  would  find 
assistance  and  protection  with  the  State  agents.^ 
And  so  supported  by  the  State,  the  chiefs  would 
form  in  the  entire  Congo  an  extremely  useful  class, 
interested  in  the  maintenance  of  order  to  which 
they  would  devote  their  prestige  and  their  authority. 
This  institution  would  become  an  important  feature 
in  the  administration  and  also  the  basis  for  the 
organisation  of  the  State. 

Everywhere  the  greatest  prudence  should  be 
exercised  in  the  choice  of  the  chiefs  to  be  thus 
recognised.     If  it  is  desired  that  their  authority  be 


*  However,  except  in  unusual  cases,  armed  men  should  not 
be  placed  at  their  disposal,  for  that  would  renew  the  abuses 
of  the  sentry  system,  and  they  should  be  punished  only  when 
they  were  personally  at  fault.  In  every  case  the  punishment 
should  be  slightly  humiliating  as  possible. 


78  The  Cong"o 

real  and  at  the  same  time  that  they  should  not  abuse 
it,  it  would  be  necessary  so  far  as  possible  to  grant 
the  official  investiture  only  to  the  natural  chiefs 
designated  by  custom  or  tradition.  These,  in  fact, 
govern  frequently  in  a  paternal  manner;  in  every 
case  their  authority  is  accepted  by  the  people;  the 
natives  show  for  them  great  respect  and  affection 
and  it  is  very  rare  that  they  find  fault  with  them.^ 

It  has  been  seen,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  com- 
plaints against  the  black  strangers  in  the  village  who 
were  clothed  with  some  authority,  were  continual 
and  in  great  number.  It  would,  therefore,  be  neces- 
sary to  be  careful  not  to  choose  chiefs  outside  of  the 
village.  If  for  any  good  reason,  the  State  should 
think  it  necessary  to  depose  a  natural  chief  it  would 
be  well  to  appoint  a  successor  from  his  family,  or 
at  least  from  amongst  the  important  men.  It  is  im- 
possible to  repeat  too  often  that  a  foreign  chief 
would  only  utilise  the  authority  of  the  State  to  the 
profit  of  his  people :  there  is  no  tyrant  more  terrible 
than  a  black  placed  over  other  blacks  unless  he  is 
restricted  by  the  ties  of  race,  of  family  or  of  tra- 
dition. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  through  the  assist- 
ance of  the  chiefs  the  excessive  demands  can  not  be 

*We  mean  here  only  the  chiefs  of  villages  or  of  small 
groups  of  villages  and  not  the  great  chiefs  whose  authority- 
extends  over  these,  for  they  are,  in  general,  real  tyrants  who 
think  only  of  enriching  themselves  and  who  depend  upon 
one  part  of  the  population  to  exploit  the  other, 


Taxation  79 

entirely  eliminated.  Chiefs  themselves  should  be 
kept  within  traditional  limits;  if  they  attempt  too 
much  they  will  lose  their  authority  and  their  people 
will  leave  them. 

The  duties  with  which  we  propose  to  invest  the 
chief  could  never  be,  according  to  our  opinion,  con- 
ferred upon  the  whites,  for,  without  mentioning  the 
great  expenses  which  such  a  system  would  entail, 
there  is  no  doubt  but  that  subordinate  agents  — 
whose  services  would  be  difficult  to  obtain  —  would 
find  themselves  exposed  to  continual  dangers  and 
would  be  obliged  to  protect  themselves  by  being 
accompanied  by  armed  negroes. 

In  addition,  let  us  say  in  passing,  it  is  desirable 
whenever  possible  that  the  State  make  use  of  the 
service  of  the  blacks  in  giving  them  employment  in 
proportion  to  their  aptitude,  without  confiding  to 
them  weapons  except  in  special  cases.  It  should 
exercise  care  to  enlist  useful  auxiliaries  who  would 
be,  let  us  repeat,  zealous  in  maintaining  the  author- 
ity which  they  will  have  shared.  To  do  otherwise 
in  a  country  where  the  European  can  not  establish 
a  permanent  footing  would  be  to  proclaim  the  sure 
destruction  of  the  negro  race  by  creating  a  class  of 
pariahs,  contrary  to  the  purpose  which  the  State 
proposes  for  its  emancipation  and  civilisation. 

The  obligation  to  pay  the  impost  in  labour  means 
necessarily  the  restriction  of  the  individual  liberty 
of  the  native.  The  strict  and  rigorous  application 
of  the  system  because  of  the  continuity  of  the  im- 


8o  The  Congo 

post  would  have  in  a  certain  degree  the  effect  of 
restricting  the  contributor  to  his  village  or  to  the 
post  to  w^hich  he  is  to  furnish  his  prestation.  It 
could  also,  in  many  cases,  impose  upon  him  a  work 
having  no  relation  to  his  special  aptitude. 

It  would  be  just  if  the  law  should  permit  every 
native  to  discharge  his  obligation  of  work  by  the 
payment  annually  or  quarterly  of  a  sum  of  money 
or  a  definite  quantity  of  produce.  This  tax  could  be 
calculated  by  taking  as  a  basis  the  value  of  the 
manual  labour  which  the  native  had  to  furnish  as  an 
impost.  It  could  even  be  superior  to  this  so  that 
the  payer  might  not  too  easily  exempt  himself  from 
the  law  of  work. 

This  privilege  would  be  of  great  value  to  those 
negroes  who  have  acquired  a  certain  degree  of  in- 
struction or  who  have  a  practical  education  and  do 
not  enjoy  the  exempti®n  granted  by  law  to  those 
who  are  in  the  State  service  or  who  are  working  for 
private  individuals. 

In  all  such  cases  the  native  would  be  obliged  to 
register  in  the  locality  where  he  intended  to  reside. 

We  have  acknowledged  the  necessity,  in  the 
Congo,  of  an  impost  of  work.  The  amount,  fixed 
at  forty  hours  a  month,  seems  to  us  equitable.  Like- 
wise we  do  not  intend  to  question  the  justice  of  the 
principle  of  coercion  included  in  the  law. 

Still  we  think  that  in  the  application  of  this  law, 
the  agents  ought  to  show  the  greatest  toleration. 

One  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  nature  of  the 


Taxation  8i 

Congo  native.  Without  doubt,  he  ought  to  yield  to 
the  inflexible  law  of  labour  which  civilisation  im- 
poses upon  him.  The  more  he  advances  on  the 
highway  of  progress  the  more  he  will  be  obHged  to 
work  and,  if  some  day  his  condition  should  approach 
our  social  status,  he  will  have,  like  the  Europeans,  to 
work  not  only  to  pay  his  taxes  but  also  to  live. 

With  us,  the  great  majority  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion must  gain  their  livelihood  by  labour,  and  those 
who  refuse  to  submit  to  this  law  have  no  other 
refuge  than  starvation,  the  prison  or  the  poorhouse. 

In  a  future,  still  quite  remote,  it  may  be  the  same 
with  the  black  in  the  Congo.  But,  let  us  repeat,  the 
nature  of  a  race  cannot  be  changed  between  to-day 
and  to-morrow.  It  is  only  by  steps,  and  slowly  at 
that,  that  one  teaches  the  negro  to  become  ac- 
customed to  labour. 

Some  demands  which  seem  to  us  moderate  could, 
under  certain  given  conditions,  appear  to  them  an- 
noying and  excessive.  On  the  other  hand,  if  each 
negligence,  each  delinquency,  however  slight,  called 
forth  coercion  by  a  strict  application  of  the  law,  no 
regulations  could  prevent  a  recurrence  of  the  acts 
which  have  been  regrettable. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten,  in  fact,  that  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  Congo  population,  the  em- 
ployment of  force,  even  to  insure  respect  for  the  law, 
often  has  results  out  of  proportion  with  the  objects 
sought.  In  the  case  of  an  individual  delinquency, 
it  is  true,  the  intervention  of  the  chief,  especially  if 


82  The  Congo 

his  authority  is  re-enforced  as  we  have  proposed, 
will  sensibly  diminish  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the 
application  of  coercive  measures.  But  when  it 
should  arise  that  there  is  a  refusal  to  pay  a  collective 
impost  —  the  case  which  up  to  the  present  time  has 
occurred  with  the  greatest  frequency  —  the  chiefs, 
however  great  might  be  their  desire,  would  find 
themselves  impotent.  The  intervention  of  the  army 
would  then  be  necessary  and  frequently  this  might 
provoke  conflicts. 

In  fact,  the  natives  in  default  would  not  respond 
to  a  simple  requisition.  If  they  sought  to  escape, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  follow  them  into  the  forest ; 
if  they  resisted,  there  would  be  some  wounded  and 
probably  killed ;  sometimes,  even,  one  might  see  a  re- 
currence of  the  acts  of  savagery  and  barbarism  which 
unfortunately  attend  the  combat  between  blacks. 
These  events  would  not  have  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Congo  peoples,  accustomed  to  the  horrors  of  inter- 
tribal conflicts,  the  same  importance  they  have  in 
ours,  but  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  they  would 
arouse  public  opinion  amongst  people  who  do  not 
know  the  condition  of  the  country. 

There  would  be  produced,  let  us  repeat,  in  spite 
of  the  instructions  and  orders,  however  wise,  in  spite 
even  of  the  prudence  and  watchfulness  which  the 
agents  would  employ,  the  recurrence  of  the  savage 
instincts  when  one  group  of  blacks  should  be  sent 
against  a  recalcitrant  group,  for  in  pursuit  or  in  con- 


Taxation  83 

flict  their  barbarous  natures  quickly  come  to  the 
surface. 

It  would  undoubtedly  be  wrong  to  deduce  from/ 
these  considerations  the  idea  that  all  coercion  should  | 
be    abolished.      The    native    can    understand    and! 
respect  nothing  but  might  and  with  this  he  con- 1 
founds    right.      The    State    ought    to    assure    the  I 
triumph  of  law  and,  consequently,  compel  the  black 
to  work.     But  if  it  wishes  to  avoid  the  regrettable 
consequences  which  we  have  pointed  out,  it  should, 
according  to  our  ideas,  make  use  of  this  authority 
only  in  the  last  extremity — that  is,  to  be  specific,  we 
would  suggest,  only  in  the  case  of  grave  and  re- 
peated delinquencies  showing  evil  intentions. 

In  many  regions,  some  force  would  have  to  be 
added  to  the  bait  of  remuneration.  The  native  who 
is  convinced  that  the  white  is  stronger  and  can,  if 
he  wishes,  force  him,  readily  yields  if  too  much  is 
not  demanded. 

This  method  of  procedure  is  also  the  only  one 
which  can  lead  to  permanent  benefits,  for  the  re- 
peated employment  of  force,  even  if  it  has  the  im- 
mediate advantage,  ends  by  creating  a  void  about 
the  post.  The  people  leave,  disappear  or  revolt. 
The  physical  resistance  of  the  natives  is  astonish- 
ingly feeble.  They  support  with  difficulty  a  sort  of 
life  that  causes  them  to  depart  from  their  custom- 
ary habits. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  any  system 
of  injurious  violence  to  the  blacks  would  weaken  the 


/ 


84  The  Congo 

State  or  the  company  in  its  material  interests,  for 
it  would  have  the  fatal  consequence  of  diminishing 
or  destroying  the  production. 

It  can  be  seen,  then,  that  it  is  a  wise  and  prudent 
policy  to  demand  only  what  can  be  accepted  by  the 
native  easily  and  secured  without  too  much  coercion. 
In  maintaining  the  principle  of  forty  hours  of  labour 
a  month,  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  the  law 
states  implicitly  that  this  is  a  maximum  which 
should  only  be  attained  by  degrees. 

This  line  of  action  ought  to  be  followed,  above  all 
things,  in  the  case  of  tribes  recently  subjugated 
and  who,  consequently,  are  not  used  to  labour. 

The  impost  then  would  be  adjusted  to  the  varying 
conditions  of  the  peoples,  the  State  bearing  in  mind 
their  aptitude  for  work  and  resting  content  with  but 
little  when  it  is  realised  that  more  could  not  be  ob- 
tained except  by  the  use  of  force. 

This  system,  based  on  toleration  and  gentleness, 
would  have  the  double  effect  of  making  the  con- 
flicts less  frequent  and  of  inspiring  the  natives  little 
by  little  to  acquire  a  taste  for  labour. 

These  ideas,  however,  are  those  which  have 
already  been  expressed  by  the  Secretaries  General  in 
the  report  addressed  to  the  King-Sovereign  under  the 
date  of  July  15,  1900 :  *'  The  plan  which  the  Govern- 
ment follows,''  we  read  there,  "  is  to  exploit  the  Pri- 
vate Domain  exclusively  by  voluntary  contributions 
on  the  part  of  the  natives,  inducing  them  to  work 
by  the  offer  of  a  just  and  adequate  remuneration.'* 


Taxation  85 

Besides,  the  application  of  this  principle  would 
not  be  prejudicial  to  the  Treasury  as  one  might 
have  reason  to  fear,  for  the  State  could  extend  it  to 
a  greater  number  of  contributors  who  would  become 
better  able  to  pay  as  the  demands  decreased.  It  is 
not  overbold  to  assert  that  at  the  present  time  the 
great  majority  of  the  natives  escape  all  imposts, 
either  because  of  the  imperfect  occupation  of  the 
territory  or  the  migration  of  the  population  who 
became  frightened  at  the  first  demands  made  upon 
them  or  by  the  actions  of  some  of  the  agents. 

The  agents  of  all  ranks  should  grasp  this  idea. 
They  should  realise  that  their  first  duty  is  to  safe- 
guard the  well-being  of  the  people  whose  affairs 
they  are  to  administer,  and  that  there  is  no  merit 
to  be  acquired  in  the  use  of  force  —  a  means  con- 
venient enough  for  obtaining  an  immediate  result, 
but  which  the  lowest  savage  knows  how  to  employ 
much  better  than  the  civilised  man.  The  State,  on 
its  part,  ought  to  reserve  its  favours  for  the  agents 
who  by  their  tact,  their  patience  and  their  modera- 
tion have  succeeded  in  winning  the  love  and  con- 
fidence of  their  charges  and  who  know  how  to  ob- 
tain in  this  way  results  which  others  secure  by 
violent  methods. 

As  to  commercial  companies,  from  which,  as  will 
be  seen  later,  we  propose  to  withdraw  the  right  to 
exercise  coercion,  they  should  know  that  if  it  is 
expected  that  the  State  will  come  to  their  aid  by 
stimulating  the  apathy  of  the  natives  by  the  impost 


86  The  Congfo 

of  labour,  they,  on  their  part,  ought  to  endeavour 
to  know  better  the  needs  of  the  natives,  and,  in  their 
interest  as  well  as  to  the  profit  of  the  natives,  should 
follow  those  principles  which  prevail  in  all  com- 
mercial operations. 


CHAPTER  III 

MILITARY   EXPEDITIONS 

/.    State  Expeditions 

WE  shall  not  speak  of  the  expeditions  which  had 
for  their  purpose  the  subjugation  of  the  na- 
tives or  the  suppression  of  their  revolutions.  These 
operations  were,  in  reality,  acts  of  war  with  which 
we  have  nothing  to  do,  the  rights  of  the  State  here 
coalescing  with  its  duties. 

Outside  of  this  category  there  are  military  ex- 
peditions which  are  right  and  necessary  to  insure 
the  maintenance  of  order  or  the  respect  for  law,  but 
such  expeditions  should  not  assume  the  character 
of  war  in  which  martial  law  takes  the  place  of  civil 
law;  they  are  police  operations  in  which  the  mem- 
bers, in  doing  everything  that  is  requisite  for  the 
restoration  of  order,  must  act  within  legal  bounds 
and  respect  the  rights  of  the  people. 

It  is  the  abusive  military  operations  having  a 
warlike  nature,  which  we  feel  ought  to  be  mentioned. 
They  are  frequently  occasioned  by  the  collection  of 
imposts  and  the  repression  of  offences. 

The  instructions  of  the  Government  fix  the  rules 
to  be  followed  in  all  police  operations  and  con- 

87 


IJ^ 


88  The  Congo 

sequently  those  that  should  serve  as  a  guide  in  those 
expeditions  which  have  for  their  purpose  the  com- 
pelHng  of  natives  to  acquit  themselves  of  the  im- 
posts.^ 

Often  expeditions  of  this  sort  consist  simply  of 
a  reconnoissance,  a  peaceful  trip,  during  which  the 
white  officer,  obedient  to  the  instructions  quoted, 
does  nothing  more  than  lead  his  troop  into  the  re- 
fractory or  delinquent  village.  He  places  himself  in 
touch  with  the  chiefs,  showing  the  blacks,  who 
respect  nothing  but  force,  the  power  of  the  State 
and  thus  proving  to  them  the  folly  of  an  obstinate 
attitude  that  would  bring  them  into  conflict  with  the 
State.  This  method  of  procedure  has  often  had 
excellent  results. 

It  is  perfectly  right  that  in  the  course  of  this  ex- 
pedition the  troops  should  arrest  the  delinquents  in 
order  to  coerce  them  in  accordance  with  the  law. 

Unfortunately  the  expedition  did  not  at  all  times 
have  this  specific  character  and  its  good  effect. 
Sometimes  it  has  been  deemed  necessary  to  act 
more  energetically. 

In  these  cases  the  order  issued  by  the  superior 
officer  to  the  commanding  officer  of  the  expedition 
usually  instructed  him  to  "  remind  the  natfves  of 
their  duties." 

The  vague  generalities  of  such  orders,  and  in 

^  If  these  instructions,  which  appear  in  the  Recueil  Admi- 
nistratif,  had  been  literally  followed,  many  of  the  excesses 
would  have  been  avoided. 


Military  Expeditions  89 

certain   cases,   the  thoughtlessness  of  the  one  to 
whom  is  charged  their  execution  have  frequently  | 
had  as  a  consequence  unjustifiable  loss  of  life. 

However,  it  should  be  understood  that  the  task 
of  the  officers  to  whom  such  missions  are  confided 
is  the  most  delicate  and  most  difficult. 

It  most  frequently  happens  that  the  natives  flee 
at  the  approach  of  the  troops  without  offering  any 
resistance.  The  tactics  generally  followed  consisted 
then  in  the  occupation  of  the  abandoned  village  or 
the  plantations  which  are  near  by.  Driven  by 
hunger  the  natives  return  either  singly  or  in  small 
groups.  They  are  arrested  and  compelled  to  sur- 
render the  chiefs  or  the  important  men  who,  nearly 
always,  submit,  promising  never  again  to  fail  in  their 
obligations,  and  sometimes  in  addition  are  required 
to  pay  a  fine.  But  it  sometimes  happens  that  the 
natives  return  slowly.  One  of  the  plans  usually 
followed  in  such  cases  is  to  send  out  search  parties 
and  beat  the  bush,  with  instructions  to  bring  such 
natives  as  they  may  find.  The  dangers  of  this 
system  are  easily  seen.  The  armed  black  left  to 
himself  feels  the  recurrence  of  the  sanguinary  in- 
stinct which  the  strictest  discipline  is  scarcely  able  to 
restrain.  It  is  during  this  service  that  most  of 
the  murders  are  committed  which  are  ascribed  to 
the  State./^This  has  been  pointed  out  in  the  case  of 
the  expedition  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Monsembe 
which  was  the  subject  of  a  complaint  made  by  the 
Rev.  M.  Weeks. 


go  The  Congo 

The  Government  recognises  the  abuses  inherent 
in  this  plan  and  has  positively  forbidden  the  search 
parties  not  commanded  by  a  white  man,  but  these 
orders  have  often  been  violated  in  spite  of  the 
punishment  upon  the  guilty  agent. 

The  form  of  operation  which  presents  still  greater 
difficulties  is  the  expedition  sent  out  to  capture 
the  fugitives. 

It  often  happens  that  the  natives  in  order  to  avoid 
the  payment  of  the  imposts,  especially  the  rubber 
tax,  migrate  either  singly  or  as  a  mass  and  establish 
themselves  in  another  region  or  even  in  another 
district.  The  detachment  of  troops  is  then  sent  to 
bring  back  the  fugitives  either  by  persuasion  or  after 
a  combat. 

The  laws  of  the  State  guarantee  in  a  most  com- 
plete manner  personal  liberty  to  the  natives,  who 
enjoy  the  same  right  as  the  white  to  go  and  come 
throughout  the  entire  territory.  Such  at  least  the 
courts  have  decided,  but  in  the  recent  circulars  the 
local  government  seems  to  have  contested  this  right, 
in  so  far  as  regards  the  permanent  migration  of  the 
natives.  These  circulars,  starting  from  the  principle 
that  land  actually  occupied  belongs  to  the  State, 
conclude  as  a  consequence  that  the  native  can  not 
locate  elsewhere  than  in  the  village  of  his  birth 
without  obtaining  beforehand  the  authorisation  of 
the  State. 

After   what   we   have   said   regarding   the   land 


Military  Expeditions  91 

system,  it  is  easily  seen  that  we  can  not  accept  this 
form  of  reasoning. 

Since  it  is  almost  always  for  the  purpose  of  avoid- 
ing the  imposts  that  the  natives  move  about,  the 
State  can  be  expected  to  bring  them  back  to  their 
homes  and  villages  and  to  impose  upon  them  work, 
using  only  its  right  of  coercion,  and  after  having 
brought  the  contributors  back  to  their  homes  it  could 
subject  them  to  imprisonment  and  enforced  labour. 
But  this  reasoning  is  not  sufficient  to  justify  the  use 
of  arms  against  a  population  whose  rebellion,  if  this 
term  may  be  employed  here,  has  been  purely  passive. 

The  military  expedition   sometimes  takes  on  a  \   y<^ 
character  still  more  repressive.    We  shall  now  speak  \ 
of  those  operations  which  have  been  called  "  puni-   i     , 
tive  expeditions,"   whose  purpose  is  to  inflict  an 
exemplary  punishment  upon  a  village  or  a  group  of 
natives  who  have  been  guilty  of  some  crime  or 
serious  resistance  against  the  authority  of  the  State. 

The  order  given  to  the  commanding  officer  of  a 
detachment  was  generally  expressed  in  the  following    j 

way :  *'  N is  instructed  to  punish  or  chastise 

such  and  such  a  village."  The  Commission  knows 
of  several  expeditions  of  this  type  the  results  of 
which  were  frequently  murderous.  One  can  not  be 
astonished  at  it.  For  in  the  course  of  delicate 
operations  which  have  for  their  purpose  the  taking 
of  hostages  and  the  intimidating  of  natives  a  super- 
vision is  not  always  possible  to  hold  in  check  the 
sanguinary  instinct  of  the  black,  for  when  the  order 


f 


Q2  The  Congfo 

of  punishment  comes  from  a  superior  authority  it 
is  very  hard  to  keep  the  expedition  from  assuming 
the  character  of  a  massacre  accompanied  by  pillage 
and  the  destruction  of  property. 

Military  action  of  this  character  always  exceeds 
its  purpose,  the  punishment  being  out  of  proportion 
to  the  fault.  It  involves  in  the  same  repression  the 
guilty  and  the  innocent. 

The  ties  of  solidarity  which,  we  do  not  hesitate  to 
recognise  it,  unite,  in  general,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
same  village  or  all  the  natives  who  depend  upon  a 
single  chief;  the  necessity  for  the  white  man,  often 
isolated  in  regions  where  the  regular  operations  of 
justice  are  not  assured,  to  protect  himself  or  his 
auxiliaries  against  the  aggressions  of  the  savage 
population  which  is  only  held  in  check  by  the  show 
of  a  superior  force :  this  can  explain  the  expeditions 
of  this  sort,  in  general,  in  the  African  colonies ;  but, 
according  to  our  opinion,  it  can  only  justify  them  in 
exceptional  cases  and  to  the  extent  that  they  do 
coincide  with,  the  sacred  right  which  we  call  personal 
safety. 

Although  we  were  compelled  to  classify  by  cate- 
gories the  different  kinds  of  military  expeditions  it 
is  easily  understood  that  the  character  of  these 
operations  can  not  always  be  distinguished  with 
such  precision  as  our  statement  may  cause  one  to 
think.  Personal  dispositions,  greater  or  less  cool- 
ness of  the  officers,  the  greater  or  less  familiarity 
with  the  African  affairs,  and  the  important  factors 


Military  Expeditions  93 

which  influence  in  a  great  degree  the  issue  of  the 
expedition  they  command.  A  military  march  which 
at  the  beginning  was  intended  to  be  peaceful  may, 
during  its  course,  take  on  a  form  both  violent  and 
regrettable. 

The  responsibility  for  these  abuses  should  not 
always  fall  wholly  upon  the  officer  in  command; 
one  must  keep  in  mind  the  deplorable  confusion 
which  still  exists  in  the  Upper  Congo  between  the 
state  of  war  and  the  state  of  peace,  between  admin- 
istration and  repression,  and  between  those  whom 
one  should  regard  as  enemies  and  those  who  ought 
to  be  regarded  as  citizens  of  the  State  and  treated 
accordingly. 

The  Commission  was  struck  by  the  general  tone 
of  the  reports  relative  to  the  operations  we  have 
just  been  describing.  Often  the  leaders  of  these  / 
expeditions,  although  stating  that  the  expedition  had 
been  occasioned  by  the  delinquency  on  the  part  of 
the  natives  in  making  the  prestation,  and  without 
even  referring  to  an  attack  or  the  resistance  on  the 
part  of  the  natives  which  alone  should  justify  the 
use  of  arms,  speak  in  their  reports  of  '*  surprise  of 
villages,''  of  **  desperate  pursuits,''  of  "  number  of 
enemies  killed  or  wounded,"  of  **  booty,"  of  "  pris- 
oners of  war,"  of  "  conditions  of  peace."  Evidently 
these  soldiers  were  thinking  of  war;  they  acted  as 
if  at  war.  This  is  certainly  not  otherwise  than  what 
their  chiefs  intended.  In  transmitting  these  reports 
to  the  superior  authority  what,  in  general,  did  the 


94  The  Congo 

District  Commissioners  mean  by  the  caption  ''  in- 
formation and  consideration  "  ?  —  Observations  of 
military  tactics,  of  praise  in  regard  to  the  order 
followed  in  the  march  or  the  disposition  which  pre- 
ceded the  attack.  Very  rarely  did  they  see  if  the 
use  of  arms  was  justifiable.  Under  these  conditions 
we  are  tempted  to  excuse  the  subordinates  who  did 
not  take  too  literally  the  pacific  character  of  their 
commission. 

This  condition  can  not  be  prolonged.  In  the  in- 
terest of  the  population  and  in  that  of  the  agents 
of  the  State  it  is  important  that  the  natives  should 
not  find  themselves  treated  all  at  once  as  enemies 
beyond  the  law,  and  on  the  other  hand  such  meas- 
ures ought  to  be  taken  that  will  prevent  officers 
who  conduct  in  good  faith  operations  of  war  from 
being  compelled  to  answer  for  these  operations  to 
the  courts  as  a  violation  of  the  common  law. 

The  Decree  of  Dec.  i8,  1888,  provided  that  a  re- 
gion could  be  subjected  to  especial  military  rule, 
but  the  results  of  this  measure  are  simply  to  extend 
the  competency  of  the  court-martial  to  include  cer- 
tain crimes  as  punishable  by  death  and  to  withdraw 
the  right  of  appeal  from  the  natives  and  from  the 
soldiers ;  but  no  other  change  is  made  by  the  Decree 
as  to  the  rights  of  the  people.  This  Decree  can  not 
have  as  its  object  the  substitution  of  military  pro- 
cedure for  judicial  action. 

A  law  ought  to  specify  clearly  what  authorities 
can  declare  the  ''  operations  of  war,"  also  determine 


Military  Expeditions  95 

the  conditions  under  which  they  are  to  be  undertaken 
and  what  form  they  should  assume.  Then  it  would 
be  definitely  known  when  one  is  under  martial  law 
and  when  under  the  civil  law  of  the  State.  Then 
too,  an  officer  in  leading  a  simple  expedition  with 
police  functions  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  the 
natives  to  pay  their  imposts  would  realise  that  he 
was  not  marching  in  a  ''hostile"  country;  that 
his  mission  was  to  remind  the  natives  of  their  ob- 
ligation to  the  State  in  accordance  with  the  law; 
that  only  in  cases  of  serious  attack  are  arms  to  be 
used;  and  that,  if  in  the  course  of  the  operations 
there  should  be  any  wounded  or  killed,  a  court  of 
enquiry  should  be  convened  to  consider  the  legality 
of  the  defence,  establish  the  responsibility  and  pro- 
secute, in  case  of  necessity,  the  guilty  whoever  they 
may  be. 

Orders  relative  to  such  operations  should  be  so 
explicit  that  neither  the  superior  nor  the  subaltern, 
in  case  abuses  resulted,  could  claim  vagueness  or 
interpret  the  order  in  such  a  way  as  to  permit  of 
escape  from  responsibility. 

In  any  event  it  ought  to  be  well  understood  that 
the  mere  act  of  delay  or  negligence  in  the  payment 
of  imposts,  in  case  it  should  call  for  the  application 
of  coercive  measures,  does  not  justify  the  charac- 
terisation of  such  operations  as  warlike. 

We  hasten  to  say,  however,  that  military  expe- 
ditions of  this  kind  have  become,  in  most  of  the 
districts,  rare. 


96  The  Congo 

//.    Expeditions  Sent  out  by  the  Companies 

The  companies  can  never  send  out  armed  expe- 
ditions. They  are  permitted  to  have  at  each  of  their 
factories  twenty-five  Albini  rifles,  of  which  twenty 
are  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  repelling  attacks 
to  which  they  may  be  subjected  by  the  natives.  The 
other  five  can  be  assigned,  under  special  permission, 
to  men  detailed  to  escort  the  whites  in  the  trips 
which  they  must  make  throughout  the  territory  in- 
cluded within  the  concession.  In  addition  to  these 
improved  weapons,  muzzle-loading  (flint-lock)  guns 
can  be  entrusted  to  the  black  capitas  at  isolated  sta- 
tions, who  must  be  supplied  with  a  permit  to  have 
arms.  "  These  guns,"  says  a  circular  of  the  Governor 
General,  "  can  be  taken  out  from  the  factories  only 
singly.  They  cannot  pass  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
commercial  companies  into  the  hands  of  groups 
more  or  less  important  nor  be  used  by  an  offensive 
force.''  In  spite  of  this  formal  interdiction,  it  has 
happened  on  several  occasions  that  the  commercial 
agents  have  made  visits  escorted  by  a  number  of 
men  armed  with  Albini  rifles  in  excess  of  the  num- 
ber permitted  by  the  instructions.  It  has  also  hap- 
pened that  these  visits  have  assumed  the  character 
of  real  military  expeditions.  In  some  cases  armed 
bands  have  been  sent  into  villages  of  natives  with- 
out being  accompanied  by  any  whites.  During 
these  irregular  operations  the  greatest  abuses  have 
been  committed;  men  have  been  killed  as  well  as 


Military  Expeditions  97 

women  and  children,  often  even  when  they  were 
fleeing;  others  have  been  made  prisoners  and  the 
wives  taken  as  hostages.  From  the  documents  and 
judicial  reports  that  have  been  examined  by  the 
Commission  it  appears  that  acts  of  this  sort  have 
taken  place,  notably  in  Mongala.  In  the  Abir  con- 
cession visited  by  the  Commission,  similar  abuses 
were  denounced  by  the  missionaries  of  the  Congo 
Balolo  Mission  as  well  as  by  the  deputies  and  many 
native  witnesses  appeared  to  confirm  these  dec- 
larations. The  deputies  likewise  reported  armed 
expeditions  undertaken  by  agents  of  the  Lomami 
and  the  Kassai  companies.  More  than  that,  the 
reports  of  the  commercial  agents  as  well  as  the 
many  sentences  passed  by  the  courts  prove  beyond 
a  doubt  the  existence  of  these  reprehensible  acts. 
The  greater  part  of  the  whites  now  in  prison  in 
Boma  are  under  punishment  for  crimes  of  this 
sort. 

Many  times  the  agents  of  the  companies,  who 
take  part  in  these  expeditions  or  who  order  them, 
thought  they  had  the  right  to  claim  the  "  police 
authority "  which  is  conferred  upon  them.  But 
this  error  of  interpretation  is  no  longer  admissible 
since  the  circular  of  the  Governor  General  dated 
October  20,  1900,  reminding  the  companies  that 
the  police  authority  is  "  never  the  right  to  carry 
on  offensive  military  operations,  to  make  war 
against  the  natives,  but  simply  gives  the  authority 
to  requisition,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  order 


98  The  Cong-o 

or  establishing  it,  the  armed  force  that  is  in  the  con- 
cession or  outside  actually  under  the  command  of 
State  officers/' 

The  Government  has,  in  fact,  placed  upon  certain 
concessions  a  police  force  charged  with  the  protec- 
tion and  supervision  of  the  territory  which  is  directly 
under  the  authority  of  the  District  Commissioner. 
The  directors  of  the  companies  may  summons  them 
directly  in  case  of  extreme  need.  From  what  w^e 
could  see  it  seems  that  these  troops  are  devoted  to 
the  directors  and  agents,  who  call  upon  them  every 
time  the  pecuniary  interests  of  the  company  are 
involved. 

The  Mutilations 

It  is  chiefly  in  the  course  of  the  armed  expedi- 
tions that  the  acts  of  mutilation  took  place  to  which 
several  witnesses,  and  especially  the  Protestant 
missionaries,  called  the  attention  of  the  Commis- 
sion. 

At  Lake  Tumba,  at  Ikoko,  the  missionaries  and 
several  blacks  told  us  that  they  saw,  about  1895, 
in  a  canoe  occupied  by  soldiers,  a  basket  containing 
a  dozen  or  twenty  hands.  Reverend  Mr.  Clark  de- 
clared that  at  about  the  same  time  he  saw  in  a  canoe 
some  hands  fastened  to  a  stick ;  they  seemed  to  have 
been  smoked.  Both  canoes  were  turned  towards 
Bikoro.  A  native  stated  that  these  hands  were 
shown  to  the  chief  of  the  Bikoro  post  and  Mr  Clark 
reports  that  this  same  agent,  now  deceased,  point- 


Military  Expeditions  99 

ing  to  his  dog  said  of  him :  "  There  is  a  cannibal 
dog,  he  eats  hands  that  have  been  cut  off." 

The  same  missionary,  Mrs.  Clark  and  Mrs.  Whit- 
man told  us  that  on  several  occasions  they  saw  na- 
tives killed  in  the  course  of  expeditions  made  by  the 
State,  from  whom  the  right  hand  had  been  cut  off, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clark,  also  a  black  witness,  testified 
to  having  seen  a  little  girl  whose  right  hand  had 
been  cut  off  during  an  expedition  and  who  died 
at  the  end  of  six  months,  notwithstanding  the  best 
medical  care,  and  also  a  woman  whose  hand  had 
been  similarly  amputated.  These  missionaries 
finally  told  us  of  a  native  named  Mola  who  had 
lost  both  hands  as  the  results  of  the  brutalities  in- 
flicted by  a  soldier.  This  was  confirmed  by  an  in- 
vestigation.* 

Some  black  witnesses,  coming  from  the  district 
of  Lake  Leopold  II.,  presented  by  Mr.  Scrivener  at 
Bolobo,  declared  that  five  or  six  years  ago,  their  vil- 
lage being  occupied  by  State  troops  after  a  battle, 
they  saw  seven  genital  organs  taken  from  natives 
killed  during  the  fight,  and  hung  from  a  vine  fast- 
ened to  two  sticks  in  front  of  the  cabin  occupied  by 
the  white. 

The  Commission  also  saw  several  mutilated  per- 
sons. 

At    Coquilhatville    we    questioned    the    persons 

*Mola  had  been  captured  by  the  soldiers.  The  cord  with 
which  he  had  been  bound  was  too  tight,  causing  gangrene  to 
set  in;  he  lost  both  hands. 


loo  The  Congo 

named  Epondo  and  Ikabo.  Epondo  had  his  left 
hand  cut  off  and  Ikabo  his  right. 

Mr.  Clark  at  Ikobo  brought  before  us  Mputila 
from  Yembe  (Lake  Tumba)  who  had  lost  his  right 
hand. 

Reverend  Mr.  Lower  at  Ikau  brought  before  us 
Imponge  from  N'Songo,  a  boy  apparently  about  fif- 
teen years  old,  who  had  lost  his  right  hand  and  left 
foot. 

Reverend  Mr.  Harris  at  Baringa  showed  to  us  a 
person  named  Isekosu  and  the  woman  Boali,  the 
former  without  his  right  hand  and  the  latter  without 
her  right  foot. 

Epondo,  repeating  the  story  which  he  had  told 
before,  declared  that  he  had  lost  his  left  hand  as  the 
result  of  a  bite  from  a  wild  boar  one  day  when  he 
was  hunting  with  his  master.^ 

Imponge  declares  that,  in  his  infancy,  some  sen- 
tries having  attacked  his  village,  his  father  fled  car- 
rying him  in  his  arms.  After  a  time  his  father 
dropped  him  in  the  brush  so  that  he  could  run  faster. 
A  sentry  saw  him  and  cut  off  his  right  hand  and 

*  Without  attaching  any  importance  to  the  statements  of 
Epondo,  which  have  greatly  varied  during  the  course  of  the 
past  two  years,  the  Commission,  relying  upon  its  own  verifi- 
cations and  upon  the  medical  examination  carefully  made  at 
Coquilhatville  by  Dr.  Vedy,  is  convinced  that  Epondo  actually 
lost  his  hand  as  the  result  of  the  bite  of  a  wild  animal.  More 
than  that,  Reverend  Mr.  Weeks  informed  us  that  this  was 
well  known  at  Malele,  where  Epondo  was  born,  as  he  had 
verified  during  a  visit  recently  to  that  village. 


Military  Expedkions  ioi 

left  foot  so  as  to  take  off  the  copper  rings  which  he 
wore.    This  was  confirmed  by  the  father. 

The  woman  Boali  said  that  a  capita,  whose  ad- 
vances she  had  repulsed,  shot  her  and  thinking  her 
dead,  cut  off  her  foot  so  as  to  be  able  to  remove  her 
anklet. 

The  three  other  mutilated  persons  said  about  as 
follows :  ''  The  soldiers  (or  sentries)  came  to  make 
war  in  our  village.  I  had  been  wounded  and  had 
fallen  unconscious  upon  the  ground.  A  soldier  (or 
sentry)  thinking  me  dead,  cut  off  my  hand."  Mr. 
Monney,  chief  of  the  post  at  Bikoro,  said  that  he 
saw  besides  Mola,  three  other  natives  with  their 
right  hands  cut  off;  all  had  made  the  same  state- 
ments. 

From  all  of  the  cases  verified  by  the  Commission,  I 
it  seems  that  the  mutilation  of  the  dead  body  is  an 
ancient  custom  which  does  not  have,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  natives,  the  horrible  character  which  it  does  in 
ours.  The  cutting  off  of  certain  parts  of  the  body 
fills  the  native's  desire  for  procuring  either  a  trophy 
or  simply  a  piece  of  evidence.  Mutilation  of  ene- 
mies who  were  killed  in  the  wars  between  natives  of 
certain  regions,  is  frequent.  Even  at  the  present 
time  the  black  who  wishes  to  show  tangible  proof  of 
the  death  of  another  and  can  not  show  the  dead 
body  usually  shows  the  hands  and  the  feet  of  the 
same.  Thus  quite  recently,  a  native  of  Wala  (near 
Baringa)  brought  to  the  Baringa  Mission  a  foot 
and  a  hand  of  a  child  which  he  had  cut  off.     He 


^ 


162'  '•*  *  "'  ^  '-rfhe'Cong-o 

came  to  complain  that  the  child  had  been  murdered 
by  a  sentry.  Some  time  after  the  natives  of  N'Son- 
go  brought  to  Mrs.  Harris  two  hands  which  they 
had  cut  off,  saying  that  they  were  those  of  two  men 
killed  by  the  sentries.  In  1902  a  native  came  to  the 
judge  of  Coquilhatville  to  denounce  the  killing  of 
a  relative  in  a  quarrel.  As  a  proof  of  what  he  said 
he  produced  the  hand  of  the  dead  man  which  he  had 
cut  off  and  smoked. 

One  ought  not  to  be  astonished  if  the  blacks  en- 
listed in  the  constabulary  have  not  been  able  to  give 
up  at  once  this  ancient  custom  and  if  in  order  to  fur- 
nish to  their  chiefs  a  proof  of  their  bravery  in  war 
have  occasionally  carried  home  the  trophy  taken 
from  the  bodies  of  their  enemies.  It  is  more  than 
likely  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  occupation  certain 
white  agents  have  tolerated  this  barbarous  custom 
or  at  least  did  not  do  all  that  was  in  their  power  to 
eradicate  it.  There  result  from  this  the  regrettable 
acts  pointed  out  to  us  and  which  we  have  con- 
firmed :  the  mutilation  of  living  personswhom  the 
soldiers  of  the  sentry  had  thought  dead./ As  to  the 
mutilation  of  Imponge  and  the  woman  Boali,  work 
of  avaricious  sentries,  they  had  theft  as  a  motive. 
\Beyond  these  cases  it  then  seems  that  the  mutila- 
tions have  never  had  the  character  of  torture  in- 
flicted voluntarily  and  knowingly.  However  that 
may  be,  one  point  is  beyond  doubt,  the  white  man 
has  never  inflicted  or  intended  to  inflict  as  a  punish- 
ment for  failure  to  make  the  prestation  or  for  other 


Military  Expeditions  103 

causes,  such  mutilations  upon  living  natives.  Acts 
of  this  sort  have  not  been  reported  by  a  single  wit- 
ness, nor  have  we  discovered  any,  notwithstanding 
all  our  investigations. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE    CONCESSIONS 


AS  we  have  just  seen,  it  is  upon  portions  of  the 
territory  exploited  by  the  companies  holding 
concessions  that  the  greatest  abuses  are  committed. 

A  concession  means  the  right  granted  in  return 
for  a  money  consideration  to  commercial  com- 
panies that  permits  them  to  gather  for  their  sole 
profit  certain  products  of  the  State  Domain.  The 
principal  companies  of  this  sort  are :  Societe  Anver- 
soise  du  Commerce  au  Congo  (S.  C.  A.,  Mongala 
basin)  ;  the  Abir  (Lopori  and  Maringa  basins,  for- 
merly the  Anglo-Beige)  ;  Isangi,  recently  leased  by 
the  Abir;  Comptoir  Commercial  Congolais  (C.  C. 
C,  established  in  the  Kwango  basin). 

Other  companies,  such  as  the  Lomami,  Societe 
anonyme  beige,  pour  le  Commerce  du  Haut-Congo 
(S.  A.  B.,  in  the  Busira)  and  the  Comite  special  dii 
Katanga,  exploit  territory  of  which  they  are  owners. 
In  exchange  for  the  right  of  exploitation  which  it 
concedes,  the  State  receives  a  considerable  part 
(often  the  half)  of  the  stock  of  the  company. 

The  thought  is  far  from  us  to  contest  the  right 
of  the  State  to  concede  the  exploitation  privilege  of 
certain  parts  of  its  domains.     It  can  even  be  said 

104 


The  Concessions  105 

that  at  present  this  plan  is  imposed  by  conditions,  tor 
the  State  did  not  have  at  its  disposal  either  the  nec- 
essary men  or  money  to  develop  such  a  vast  area; 
it  found  itself  compelled  to  rely  upon  the  initiative 
of  private  parties  and  it  accepted  with  gratitude  the 
assistance  that  was  offered  by  the  bold  financiers 
who  were  willing  to  risk  their  capital  in  enterprises 
that  at  first  seemed  hazardous. 

But,  considering  the  dislike  of  the  native  for 
work  and  his  few  wants,  the  exploitation  of  the 
forests  of  the  domain  under  the  operations  of  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand  could  not  have  continued 
very  long.  After  having  exhausted  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  villages,  the  work  of  the  gath- 
erers became  more  difficult  and  the  use  of  coercion  \ 
was  necessary  to  arouse  the  blacks  from  their  apa- 
thy. In  order  to  permit  the  companies  to  make  use 
of  this,  the  State,  claiming  th«  right  to  a  certain 
amount  of  work  as  a  prestation,  delegated  a  portion 
of  its  powers  to  the  concessions ;  in  other  words,  it 
authorised  these  companies  to  require  of  the  blacks 
work  in  the  rubber  forests  as  well  as  other  forms  of 
prestation  and  to  exercise  the  power  of  coercion  to 
obtain  them.  This  authorisation,  at  first  tacit,  was 
formulated  in  the  Decree  of  November  18,  1903, 
which  imposed  upon  the  natives  of  all  territories  the 
impost  of  forty  hours'  work  each  month  and  allowed 
the  Governor  General  to  empower  the  commercial 
agents  to  collect  this  impost.  Even  before  this  ad- 
ministrative  act,    these    companies    compelled    the 


>c 


1 06  The  Congo 

native  to  gather  for  their  benefit  the  fruits  of  the 
domain,  observing  always  the  principle  of  remunera- 
tion, 

it  is  the  way  in  which  the  companies  make  use  of 
the  right  to  coerce  that  is  the  source  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  complaints  coming  from  their  regions. 

The  concessions,  being  commercial,  have  in  view 
profits  and  not  civilisation  or  humanitarian  ends. 
The  inconveniences  that  result  from  their  double 
functions  can  be  easily  seen.  They  are,  at  one  and 
the  same  time,  commercial  agents  stimulated  by  the 
hope  of  great  gain  and,  in  a  certain  measure,  offi- 
cials, since  they  are  entrusted  with  the  collection  of 
imposts.  It  should  also  not  be  forgotten  that  for 
many  years  the  amount  of  impost  was  not  fixed  by 
law,  the  agents  themselves  determining  this.  The 
vagueness  in  the  matter  of  imposts  in  kind  exists 
even  under  the  Decree  of  November  18,  1903.  In 
fact,  as  we  have  said,  a  maximum  is  demanded  of 
each  native,  which  is  never  reached,  leaving  a  con- 
siderable margin  within  which  the  agent  can  exer- 
cise his  demands  at  his  discretion.  Since  the  higher 
officials  and  directors  derive  a  greater  profit  from 
the  rubber  than  do  the  subalterns,  it  can  be  seen  that 
they  carefully  watch  the  actions  of  the  latter.  Fi- 
nally, the  field  from  which  the  companies  can  select 
their  agents  is  limited  and  those  who  present  them- 
selves do  not  always  possess  a  guarantee  of  intelli- 
gence, morality  and  needful  tact. 

We  should  add  that  the  State  supervision  over 


The  Concessions  107 

these  territories  ought  to  be  made  more  effective. 
Let  us  take  for  example,  the  Abir  company,  whose 
territory  comprises  the  Lopori  basin  and  the  Marin- 
ga  and  now  extends  as  far  as  the  Congo  River 
(Isangi). 

There  is  in  this  immense  concession  only  one 
State  agent,  the  commandant  of  the  police  force  sta- 
tioned at  Basankusu.  Although  he  has  judicial 
functions,  he  has  never  reported  to  the  superior  au- 
thorities any  illegalities  that  have  been  committed 
in  his  district.  His  tasks  have  been  limited  to  sup- 
pressing the  revolts  of  the  natives,  or  calling  the 
refractory  villages  to  their  work,  and  we  are  forced 
to  think  that  he  has  no  other  duty  to  perform  since 
his  instructions,  which  we  have  seen,  were  always 
in  relation  to  these  matters. 

Some  of  the  Commissioners  in  the  Equator  Dis- 
trict have  made  visits  in  their  regions,  but  they  have 
usually  gone  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  the  imposts, 
as  appears  from  their  reports. 

Only  three  times  have  the  magistrates  gone  into 
the  concession  to  investigate  matters  that  have  been 
reported  to  them;  they  were  compelled  to  make  the 
trip  in  the  boats  belonging  to  the  company  —  the 
State  not  having  any  service  in  this  region  —  and 
thus  found  themselves  forced  to  accept  the  hospital- 
ity of  the  agents  upon  whom  they  were  to  report. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  the  company  on  which  the 
State  has  imposed  no  guardianship,  thinks  itself 
absolute  mistress  in  its  own  domain  and  one  must 


io8  The  Congo 

not  be  surprised  if  the  general  laws  of  the  State  are 
openly  disregarded. 

What  are  the  remedies  that  could  put  an  end  to 
such  a  condition? 

The  ideal  plan  would  be  that  the  State,  confining 
itself  to  the  proper  role,  should  not  relinquish,  in  any 
part  of  its  territory,  the  slightest  particle  of  its  sov- 
ereign rights ;  that  it  discharge  everywhere  the  duty 
incumbent  upon  it  to  civilise  the  land  and  to  see  to 
its  moral  and  material  development ;  to  limit  the  im- 
position of  taxes  to  articles  harvested  or  exported, 
leaving  to  traders  the  exploitation  of  the  natural  re- 
sources of  the  country.  But  the  difficulties  of  ex- 
ploiting under  the  operations  of  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand,  especially  when  it  is  necessary  to  rely 
upon  the  manual  labour  of  the  native,  are  so  great 
that,  as  said  before,  we  do  not  think  the  plan  fea- 
sible at  the  present  time. 

The  ideal  which  we  have  pointed  out  can  not  be 
achieved  immediately.  We  do  not  think  that  there 
is  any  occasion  for  the  State  to  extend  the  conces- 
sions now  existing  nor  to  grant  new  ones.  The 
present  companies  will  continue  to  exploit  the  ter- 
ritory which  has  been  granted  to  them ;  their  agents 
can  in  certain  cases  be  delegated  to  receive  from  the 
natives  the  products  of  the  forty  hours'  labour  which 
the  State  imposes  upon  them;  but  it  is  well  under- 
stood that  the  Government  can  not  confer  upon 
them  the  right  of  coercion  which  has  caused  much 
abuse  and  which  in  the  hands  of  the  commercial 


The  Concessions  log 

agents  would  continue  to  do  so.  For  it  is  evident 
that  the  conferring  of  this  power  implies  the  author- 
ity to  make  use  of  armed  force  and  prisons,  the 
privilege  of  sending  out  expeditions  to  arrest  the 
delinquents  and  to  make  use  of  arms  in  case  of  re- 
sistance. This  authority  could  only  perpetuate  the 
unfortunate  occurrences  which  we  have  pointed  out. 

No  one  but  State  officials,  absolutely  inde-1 
pendent  of  the  companies  and  entirely  indifferent 
to  their  interests,  should  be  authorised  to  impose  j 
coercion.  It  should  be  their  duty  to  examine  in! 
every  case  the  reason  and  occasion  for  the  imposi-| 
tion  of  enforced  labour. 

The  State  should,  moreover,  maintain  the  most 
rigid  supervision  over  the  companies,  establish,  in 
the  concession,  courts  composed  of  trained  judges, 
and  organise  public  service,  postal  routes,  means  of 
transportation,  medical  assistance  and  hospitals.  It 
ought  also  to  remind  the  different  companies  that  in 
receiving  the  right  to  collect  the  impost  for  their 
profit,  they  assumed  towards  the  State  and  towards 
the  natives,  its  subjects,  obligations  which  seem  to 
have  been  ignored.  If  after  the  withdrawal  of  coer- 
cion the  abuses  referred  to  recur,  the  line  of  action  of 
the  State  would  clearly  be :  in  virtue  of  their  charter 
the  companies  should  continue  the  right  of  exploit- 
ing certain  products  of  the  domain  for  a  definite 
period ;  it  is  a  right  which  can  not  be  taken  from  them 
without  indemnity;  but  the  concession  holders  can, 
at  the  option  of  the  State,  be  or  not  be  commissioned 


I  lo  The  Congo 

to  receive  the  prestations  of  the  natives.  The  com- 
mission granted  by  the  Government  is  essentially 
temporary  and  revocable.  Now,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  withdrawal  of  the  commission  could  as  an  imme- 
diate consequence  make  the  concession  void.  It 
is  well  to  say  it  and  to  repeat  it.  We  have  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  fear  of  such  action  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  stimulate  the  vigilance  of  the  companies 
and  remind  them  of  a  strict  discharge  of  their  duties. 
If  they  should  do  otherwise,  we  are  convinced  that 
the  State  would  know  its  duty. 

At  the  present  time  the  total  amount  of  impost 
from  the  territory  under  the  concession  is  for  the 
benefit  of  the  company,  and  the  State  derives  only 
the  benefit  that  comes  from  the  dividend  on  the 
stock  it  holds. 

These  companies  have  done  nothing  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  natives  nor  improved  the  conditions  in 
the  regions  occupied.  It  would  be  right  and  proper 
for  the  State,  when  it  grants  the  privilege  of  col- 
lecting the  prestations  for  their  profit,  to  impose  in 
proportion  to  the  favours  bestowed,  the  obligation 
to  contribute  from  their  profits  funds  for  the  or- 
ganisation of  public  improvements. 

In  certain  regions  that  have  not  been  under  a  con- 
cession, the  native  gathers  the  products  of  the  do- 
main in  the  interests  of  the  companies  and  under  the 
operations  of  an  indirect  coercion. 

These  regions  are  those  in  which  the  State,  by  the 


The  Concessions  1 1 1 

Decree  of  October  30,  1892,  turned  over  to  private 
companies  the  exploitation  of  rubber. 

In  the  greater  part  of  the  Kassai  basin,  under  this 
plan,  there  are  several  companies  which  form  a  trust 
so  as  to  eliminate  competition,  constituting  the  Kas- 
sai company  (C.  K.).  This  trust  was  organised 
under  the  laws  of  the  Congo,  but  it  did  not  receive 
a  concession,  properly  so  called,  like  the  Abir  or  the 
S.  C.  A.  Its  representatives  do  not  enjoy  the  priv- 
ilege of  levying  an  impost.  It  cannot  collect  the 
rubber  and  other  forest  products  except  by  treating 
directly  with  the  native. 

But  if,  in  principle,  the  native  is  completely  free 
to  gather  or  not  gather,  to  sell  or  not  sell,  he  finds 
himself  in  fact,  at  least  in  the  Sankuru  basin,  in- 
directly forced  to  devote  himself  to  the  work.  In 
reality  he  is  subjected  to  a  State  tax.  Now  this  tax 
must  be  paid  in  a  local  currency  called  croisette,  and 
this  can  be  obtained  only  from  the  traders  who  de- 
mand rubber  in  exchange  for  it. 

In  addition  to  this  coercion  other  abuses  resulting 
from  this  system  have  been  pointed  out  to  us. 

The  quantity  of  rubber  which  the  company  re- 
quires in  exchange  for  the  croisette  is  left  more  or 
less  arbitrary.  More  than  that,  the  person  who  is 
in  charge  of  the  factory  and  knows  a  native  will  not 
work  after  he  has  secured  the  number  of  croisettes 
necessary  to  pay  his  impost,  is  careful  most  of  the 
time  to  pay  the  native  in  some  sort  of  merchandise 
other  than  croisette. 


112  The  Congo 

From  information  collected  by  the  Commission 
it  seems  certain  that  the  payment  made  the  native  in 
return  for  his  rubber  is  less  than  the  remuneration 
allowed  by  the  State  under  similar  conditions  and 
on  the  other  hand  the  quantity  demanded  is  greater. 

In  other  Districts,  especially  Lulonga,  the  dis- 
trict lying  between  the  mouth  of  Lomami  and  the 
station  of  Stanleyville  which  we  visited,  the  factories 
buy  directly  from  the  native  the  rubber  collected  by 
him.  The  native  is  not  compelled  to  pay  any  im- 
post. Article  VIII,  of  the  Decree  of  October  30, 
1892,  being  observed  there.  All  the  same,  he  con- 
siders himself  obliged  to  gather  rubber  for  the  fac- 
tories. The  following  fact  shows  that  the  relations 
between  factories  and  the  natives  are  not  considered 
by  the  latter  as  having  a  commercial  character:  in 
the  region  of  the  station  of  Stanleyville  the  blacks 
offered  to  an  agent  of  a  Dutch  firm  to  surrender 
completely  the  remuneration  which  had  been  al- 
lowed them  on  condition  that  the  company  would 
reduce  to  one-half  the  quantity  of  rubber  demanded. 

It  is  easily  understood  that  the  evils  of  the  system 
are  less  in  the  territories  where  competition  between 
companies  keeps  the  remuneration  at  a  reasonable 
figure  than  in  those  regions  where  there  is  but  one 
company.  Thus  the  Commission  received  no  com- 
plaint from  the  zone  of  the  Falls  where  four  com- 
panies established  their  officers  and  where  the  Rev. 
Messrs.  Stapleton  and  Millman,  missionaries  of 
the  B.  M.  S.  at  Yakasu,  express  their  complete  satis- 


The  Concessions  113 

faction  relative  to  the  material  and  moral  condition 
of  the  country. 

These  people,  said  Mr.  Stapleton,  afford  a  means 
of  comparison  between  the  present  condition  and 
that  of  the  time  of  Arab  domination  and  the  result 
of  the  comparison  is  altogether  in  favor  of  the 
present. 

In  the  Lulonga,  on  the  contrary,  abuses  were 
pointed  out  to  us  for  which  the  concessions  were 
held  responsible;  methods  of  illegal  coercion  were 
employed  and  the  sentry  system  was  in  force.  The 
lash  was  in  common  use,  as  the  Commission  of  en- 
quiry found  and  as  the  agents  in  charge  of  factories 
themselves  confessed. 

From  what  precedes  one  can  conclude,  we  think, 
that  everywhere  in  the  Congo,  and  notwithstanding 
appearances  to  the  contrary,  the  native  gathers  rub- 
ber only  under  coercion,  either  direct  or  indirect. 

We  do  not  think  that  at  the  present  time,  except 
perhaps  in  Kasai  and  certain  parts  of  the  Eastern 
Province,  it  would  be  possible  under  the  operations 
of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  to  collect  rubber 
by  means  of  the  native,  if  left  to  himself,  at  least  in 
such  a  way  as  to  constitute  a  regular  business. 
However,  as  the  contrary  is  asserted  and  as  a  trial 
alone  can  show  what  there  is  of  truth  in  our  fears 
or  in  the  hopes  of  the  merchants,  we  think  it  would 
be  well  for  the  State,  as  an  experiment,  to  renounce 
in  one  or  more  of  the  rubber  districts  its  claim  upon 
the  products  of  the  domain.    The  traders  who  should 


1 14  The  Congo 

come  there  would  treat  directly  with  the  natives; 
they  would  be  relieved  from  all  imposts  and  would 
be  induced  to  work  by  the  desire  for  the  remunera- 
tion offered.  It  would  be,  in  effect,  to  try  the 
experiment  which  could  have  been  made  by  the  ap- 
plication of  the  Decree  of  October  30,  1892.  The 
result  of  this  attempt,  if  tried,  could  furnish  some 
information  that  would  be  useful  in  the  future.  In 
order  that  this  experience  might  not  be  false  in  its 
essentials,  the  State,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say, 
should  carefully  see  to  it  that  no  coercion,  even 
moral,  is  imposed  upon  the  native.  It  should,  in 
addition,  facilitate  as  far  as  possible  the  installation 
in  the  region  of  a  large  number  of  traders  by  selling 
to  them  at  a  low  figure  the  ground  necessary  for  the 
installation  of  the  factories. 


CHAPTER  V 


DEPOPULATION 


SEVERAL  missionaries  heard  by  the  Commis- 
sion reported  the  depopulation  which  they  had 
verified  in  certain  regions  with  which  they  were 
particularly  familiar.  It  is  evident  that  the  Com- 
mission was  not  able  itself  to  form  a  definite  opin- 
ion regarding  this  statement.  However,  if  the  word 
of  Stanley  is  accepted,  it  is  certain  that  a  large  part 
of  the  population  has  disappeared,  for  going  from 
Stanley  Pool  to  New  Antwerp  and  even  further  up, 
the  banks  of  the  river  are  almost  deserted.  It  is 
easily  realised  that  it  was  the  river  population  which, 
being  first  reached  by  the  requirements  of  the  whites, 
had  sought  to  avoid  these  prestations  and  fled  to  the 
French  bank  or  to  those  parts  of  the  territory  where 
they  thought  the  impost  could  not  reach  them. 
Sometimes  the  population  was  drained  by  the  fre- 
quent enrollment  of  soldiers  or  of  workmen;  such 
has  been  the  fate  of  the  villages  immediately  below 
New  Antwerp.  Their  inhabitants  have  been  scat- 
tered rather  than  destroyed.  It  is  known  how  the 
Bangalas,  who  at  the  time  of  occupation  formed  a 
large  part  of  the  native  portion  of  the  constabulary 
and  made  up  the  entire  crew  of  the  marine,  were 

IIS 


1 1 6  The  Congo 

scattered  along  the  entire  river  and  throughout  a 
large  part  of  the  Congo  territory  as  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  the  commercial  vernacular  comes  from 
their  language. 

The  missionaries  also  express  the  opinion  that  in 
certain  regions  where  the  military  expeditions  had 
been  numerous  and  where  the  imposts,  badly  dis- 
tributed, weighed  too  heavily  on  certain  villages,  the 
anxiety  and  the  depression  resulting  from  this  state 
of  affairs  had  caused  the  depopulation;  the  natives 
lacking  confidence  constructed  only  temporary  shel- 
ters which  protected  them  poorly  from  the  inclem- 
encies of  the  weather;  at  the  slightest  alarm  they 
fled  into  the  forests  and  the  islands  in  the  river; 
hence  the  considerable  mortality.  Messrs.  Weeks 
and  Gilchrist  see  in  this  condition  the  explanation  of 
the  great  diminution  which  has  come  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  banks  of  the  river  and  the  mouth  of  the 
Lulonga.  Mr.  Clark  also  explained  that  the  nu- 
merous wars  with  the  State  had  caused  the  depopu- 
lation reported  in  the  region  of  Lake  Tumba.  We 
ourselves  have  noticed  the  disastrous  effects  of  por- 
terage and  showed  that  the  excessive  labour  im- 
posed upon  the  natives  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
certain  large  posts  had  the  effect  of  depopulating 
the  country. 

But  another  feature  of  the  question  must  not  be 
neglected,  perhaps  the  most  important,  at  least  so 
far  as  concerns  the  river  population.  We  wish  to 
speak  of  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  which 


Depopulation  117 

was  flourishing  along  the  entire  river  and  whose 
most  active  centre  was  at  the  junction  of  the  Lulon- 
ga  and  the  Congo.  The  State,  in  putting  an  end 
to  this  traffic,  gave  a  mortal  blow  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  slave  dealers,  the  greater  part  of  whom  have 
disappeared  from  the  river  banks  together  with  the 
commerce  which  they  had  fostered. 

All  of  these  causes  of  depopulation  are  secondary 
in  importance.  The  effect  of  all  these  factors 
united  fades  away  in  comparison  with  the  rav- 
ages committed  during  the  past  few  years  by  small- 
pox and  the  sleeping  sickness.  Great  smallpox  epi- 
demics have  decimated  the  population  of  certain 
districts,  especially  the  eastern  part  of  Lake  Leopold. 
These  epidemics  have  been  made  still  more  fatal  by 
the  habit  which  the  natives  have  of  abandoning  in 
the  forest  those  who  are  attacked  by  the  disease. 
The  patient  left,  most  of  the  time,  without  care  and 
nourishment,  soon  dies. 

The  sleeping  sickness,  this  terrible  scourge,  for 
which  science  has  as  yet  found  no  remedy,  has  fol- 
lowed in  its  devastating  march  the  banks  of  the 
great  river  and  is  now  penetrating  the  interior. 

The  Congo  State  is  forced  to  battle  against  this 
double  scourge.  It  has  urged  its  physicians  to  vac- 
cinate everywhere  the  personnel  of  the  stations  and 
to  render  immune  even  the  inhabitants  of  the  native  | 
villages.  It  has  built  in  the  principal  places  of  the 
district  hospitals  for  the  black  patients.  The  Com- 
mission visited  several.     That  at  Boma,  a  superb 


1 1 8  The  Cong-o 

edifice  built  of  brick,  surrounded  by  subsidiary 
buildings,  reserved  for  blacks  with  contagious  dis- 
eases, deserves  all  possible  praise.^ 

The  old  hospital  at  Leopoldville,  which  gave  oc- 
casion to  well-founded  criticisms,  has  disappeared 
and  been  replaced  by  an  installation  which,  without 
having  the  importance  and  comfort  of  that  of  Boma, 
completely  meets  the  actual  needs. 

The  State  supports  the  Bacteriological  Institute 
at  Leopoldville  where  the  scientists  are  investigating 
the  causes  of  the  mysterious  sleeping  sickness.  Cer- 
tain Catholic  and  Protestant  missions  are  endeav- 
ouring to  diminish,  as  far  as  possible,  the  ravages  of 
this  disease  by  isolating  the  blacks,  who  are  attacked, 
in  sanitaria  constructed  for  this  purpose  on  the  river 
islands  or  in  out-of-the-way  places.  Dr.  Royal  Dye 
of  the  Bolengi  Mission  is  making  interesting  experi- 
ments which  promise  good  results. 

Finally,  the  entire  world  has  followed  with  inter- 
est the  expedition  organised  by  the  Liverpool  School 
of  Tropical  Medicine.  One  of  the  members.  Dr. 
Dutton,  has  just  succumbed  in  this  task. 

We  shall  have  mentioned  all  of  the  causes  of  de- 
population when  we  have  referred  to  the  frequency 


*  It  would  be  desirable  that  the  black  nurses  of  this  hospital, 
who  do  not  give  perfect  satisfaction  (the  black  has  no  senti- 
ment of  charity),  be  replaced  by  Sisters.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  a  contemplative  order  would  not  be  suitable  for 
this  service.  The  Sisters  of  Saint- Vincent-de-Paul  might  be 
chosen. 


Depopulation  119 

with  which  the  native  women  resort  to  abortive 
practices. 

Some  of  the  Protestant  missionaries  have  told  us 
that  the  women  avoid  having  children  so  that  they 
may  always  be  in  better  condition  to  flee  in  case  of 
the  coming  of  a  military  expedition.  Abortion 
exists,  that  is  certain,  but  it  is  attributable  to  a  super- 
stitious idea,  encouraged  by  the  sorcerers,  against 
which  the  missionaries  of  all  denominations  are 
compelled  to  struggle;  according  to  this  both  the 
husband  and  the  wife  are  condemned  to  death  in 
case  continence  is  not  observed  during  the  suckling 
of  an  infant.  Now  as  this  period  sometimes  lasts 
two  or  three  years,  this  firmly  rooted  belief  explains 
at  once  the  relatively  small  number  of  infants  one 
sees  in  certain  sections  and  at  the  same  time,  the  per- 
sistence of  polygamy. 

From  what  has  gone  before,  it  must  not  be  be- 
lieved that  the  population  is  everywhere  on  the 
decrease  or  that  the  union  is  always  sterile.  We 
have  observed  that  in  the  Lopori  and  the  Maringa 
basins,  as  well  as  upon  the  banks  of  the  Congo 
River  from  Mobeka  to  the  Falls,  there  are  numerous 
villages  and  a  considerable  number  of  infants. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ABANDONED  INFANTS 

THE  Decree  of  July  12,  1890,  has  conferred  upon 
the  State  the  guardianship  ''  of  the  infants 
obtained  as  the  result  of  the  arrest  or  the  dispersion 
of  a  slave  convoy,  of  those  of  fugitive  slaves  who 
claim  its  protection,  of  infants  forsaken,  abandoned 
or  who  are  orphans,  and  of  others  towards  whom 
the  parents  do  not  discharge  their  duty  in  the  way 
of  support  and  education." 

I.    Colonies  of  the  State 

Article  H  of  the  Decree  says  that  there  shall  be 
created  for  this  purpose  "  agricultural  and  training 
colonies  where  there  shall  be  admitted  other  children 
belonging  to  the  category  named  in  Article  I  and 
as  far  as  may  be  possible  those  who  should  request 
admission." 

Some  colonies,  called  educational  colonies,  have 
been  founded  at  Boma  and  at  New  Antwerp.  Here 
the  first  important  step  has  been  taken  by  the  State 
for  the  Establishment  in  the  Congo  of  public  in- 
struction and  the  beneficial  effect  of  these  meas- 
ures can  not  be  questioned.     Moreover,  it  will  be 


The  Abandoned  Infants        121 

at  once  seen  how  useful  to  the  State  it  will  be  to 
have  these  black  pupils  relatively  instructed  from 
which  to  draw  excellent  servants,  good  soldiers,  and 
workmen  of  all  sorts.  The  children  remain  under 
the  guardianship  of  the  State  until  the  age  of  25 
years. 

The  program  of  study  outlined  in  general  by  the 
order  of  April  23,  1898,  is  well  planned.  The  day 
is  divided  between  study,  military  exercise  under  the 
instruction  of  a  non-commissioned  officer,  and 
manual  labour. 

The  young  natives  can  be  admitted  to  the  colony 
up  to  the  age  of  12.  They  pursue  three  courses,  or 
three  years  of  study.  Those  who  show  especial 
aptitude  are,  at  the  end  of  the  first  or  second  year, 
relieved  from  military  exercises.  At  the  end  of  the 
third  year  a  separation  is  made.  One  part  of  the 
pupils  is  turned  into  the  public  constabulary  and 
the  other  part  enters  the  State  administration. 

The  Commission,  while  recognising  the  great  in- 
terest aroused  by  this  educational  initiative  taken  by 
the  State,  examined  with  especial  care  the  questions 
raised  by  the  Decree  of  July  12,  1890.  Though  fully 
approving,  as  a  whole,  the  principle  of  the  institu- 
tion, the  Commission  does  not  ignore  the  fact  that 
certain  serious  criticisms  can  be  urged  against  some 
features  of  the  system  as  it  is  now  conducted. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  forceful  abolition  of 
slavery,  the  only  class  of  infants  that  can  now 
supply  the  colonies  is  that  of  abandoned  infants,  or 


122  The  Congo 

orphans;  but  how  are  the  expressions  contained  in 
the  decree  to  be  interpreted?  It  has  been  said  that 
the  infants  of  this  class,  according  to  the  native 
classification,  are  rare.  Although  orphaned  by  the 
loss  of  both  father  and  mother,  the  young  black  is 
hardly  ever  forsaken  by  his  relatives.  It  is  not  in- 
frequent to  hear  a  black  speak  of  his  fathers  and  his 
mothers.  By  that  he  means  his  uncles  and  his 
aunts,  and  in  case  of  a  lack  of  those  to  whom  he 
owes  his  life,  those  towards  whom  he  must  dis- 
charge filial  duties  have  a  claim  upon  him.  These 
parents,  in  the  native  meaning  of  the  term,  feel 
themselves  injured  when  a  child  which  they  had 
nourished  and  reared  up  to  the  present  time,  is  taken 
from  them,  and  even  torn  from  its  village,  in 
order  to  become  a  pupil  of  the  State,  separated 
from  its  natural  protectors  whom  it  could  not  dis- 
tinguish from  its  real  father  and  mother.  There  is, 
then,  a  certain  injustice  when  one  interprets  literally 
the  provisions  of  the  first  article  of  the  decree. 

Now  it  appears  that  this  is  the  interpretation  that 
has  prevailed  up  to  the  present  time.  The  State  has 
been  forced  to  endure  the  reproach  of  "  recruiting," 
under  the  guise  of  assistance,  but  against  the  wishes 
of  those  interested,  the  young  people  destined  to  fill 
the  ranks  of  its  constabulary. 

The  second  criticism  that  we  shall  formulate  is 
not  of  a  general  character  and  applies  to  the  special 
condition  that  existed  in  the  Boma  school  colony 
at  the  time  of  the  Commission's  visit.     Enjoying 


The  Abandoned  Infants        123 

only  a  limited  grant,  this  establishment,  though 
founded  ten  years  ago,  has  not  been  able  to  properly 
develop  its  installation.  The  dormitories  are  built 
of  bamboo.  The  cold  wind  of  the  night  penetrates 
and  the  children  thus  exposed  contract  pulmonary 
diseases  which  the  natives  only  feebly  resist;  for 
this  reason  there  is  a  large  death-rate  amongst  the 
pupils  of  the  State. 

The  present  Director  of  the  colony  realising  that 
such  a  condition  was  intolerable,  undertook  to  re- 
place these  dormitories  by  solid  brick  buildings. 
But  lacking  necessary  funds  he  was  obliged  to  em- 
ploy the  young  pupils  themselves  to  do  the  work. 
Children  of  from  six  to  twelve  years  of  age  had  to 
dry  and  carry  bricks.  To  do  this  their  studies  were 
completely  interrupted  and  the  children,  without 
benefit  to  their  intellectual  development  or  even 
practical  development,  were  changed  into  workmen 
and  kept  at  labour  beyond  their  endurance. 

Undoubtedly  it  will  suffice  to  call  attention  to 
this  state  of  affairs  so  prejudicial  to  the  pupils  of 
the  State  to  insure  a  prompt  remedy. 

There  remains  for  us  to  call  attention  to  a  defect 
more  serious,  since  it  affects  the  system  itself  and 
will  be  of  a  nature  to  violate  the  spirit  of  the  law 
by  making  it  detract  from  its  humanitarian  purpose. 
As  we  have  said  under  Article  III  of  the  Decree  the 
children  remain  under  the  guardianship  of  the  State 
until  their  25th  year.  This  period  is  excessive.  The 
Decree  does  not  recognise  the  conditions  of  the  life 


124  The  Congo 

of  the  native.  The  length  of  Hfe  of  the  black  sel- 
dom exceeds  30  or  35  years;  the  age  of  the  adult  is 
his  sixteenth  year  and  the  result  of  the  provisions 
of  the  Decree  as  stated  is  to  keep  the  pupils  of  the 
State  in  a  semi-perpetual  minority. 

It  is  true,  as  we  have  said,  that  according  to 
Article  XII  of  the  Order  of  the  Governor  General 
dated  April  2^,  1898,  the  children  having  fol- 
lowed the  course  for  three  years  can,  if  they  are  14 
years  of  age,  be  detailed  to  the  constabulary  or 
leave  the  colony  to  carry  on  the  trade  or  profession 
which  they  have  learned  there.  But  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  State  continues  to  weigh  upon  them,  and 
in  fact,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  derives  any 
great  advantage  from  the  education  and  the  instruc- 
tion which  they  have  received. 

The  lot  of  the  former  colonists,  who  have  become 
labourers  for  the  State,  or  been  given  some  special 
employment,  is  still  more  unsatisfactory. 

In  spite  of  the  labour  (incomparably  harder  than 
that  of  the  soldiers)  which  they  must  perform  and 
notwithstanding  the  special  aptitude  they  may  show, 
these  young  men  are  treated  as  in  the  ranks  of  the 
constabulary  and  receive  the  same  pay,  which  in  all 
cases  is  much  less  than  is  received  by  a  person  hav- 
ing equal  education  or  training  working  independ- 
ently. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  the  Director  of  the 
Colony  this  is  fatal.  The  inferior  condition  of  the 
pupils  of  the  State  is  known  to  their  comrades  and 


The  Abandoned  Infants        125 

is  the  cause  of  derision  to  which  they  are  subject 
when  they  leave.  The  designation  Koloni  is  an 
epithet  of  opprobrium.  Instead  of  furnishing  the 
elements  of  a  conservative  class,  one  enlightened 
and  helpful  to  the  State  as  a  civilising  agency  from 
which  those  competent  to  judge  would  wish  to 
draw,  they  become  revolutionists,  dissatisfied  and 
a  greater  source  of  danger  to  the  State  in  proportion 
as  their  course  of  instruction  was  more  complete. 

2.    The  Children  (fathered  in  the  Missions 

We  have  spoken  until  now  of  the  children  col- 
lected and  educated  by  the  State  itself.  It  now  re- 
mains for  us  to  occupy  ourselves  with  a  larger 
category,  those  who  are  confided  to  the  care  of  the 
missions. 

According  to  the  terms  of  the  Decree  of  March  4, 
1892,  the  State  authorised  "  the  legal  representa- 
tives of  philanthropic  associations  and  religious 
Orders  to  receive  in  the  agricultural  schools  and 
training  colonies  which  they  direct,  native  children 
who,  according  to  law,  come  under  the  guardianship 
of  the  State." 

The  Catholic  missions  have  been  about  the  only 
ones  to  profit  by  the  Decree  of  1892.  The  Protest- 
ants are,  as  a  rule,  hostile  to  the  system  of  school 
colonies.  The  Foreign  Christian  Missionary 
Society,  which  shelters  in  its  establishment  at  Bo- 
lengi  a  small  number  of  abandoned  children,  forms 


126  The  Congo 

in  this  respect  an  exception  amongst  the  evangelical 
missions. 

With  the  exception  of  the  military  drill  these 
children  are  under  the  same  routine  as  those  who 
are  under  immediate  control  of  the  State.  And  the 
greater  part  of  the  criticisms  of  which  we  .have 
spoken  are  justified  here.  However,  in  point  of 
view  of  lodgings  and  the  work  to  which  the  chil- 
dren are  assigned,  the  Commission  can  not  repeat, 
as  a  result  of  the  different  missions  visited,  the  ob- 
servations that  it  had  to  make  regarding  the  present 
situation  at  the  Boma  colony.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Commission  can  testify  to  the  excellent  condition 
of  the  buildings  at  Kisantu,  at  Bamanya  and  at 
New  Antwerp.  It  was  present  at  the  class  exer- 
cises, it  visited  the  workshops  and  is  pleased  to 
recognise  the  zeal  with  which  the  missionaries  look 
after  the  instruction  and  the  training  of  their  pupils. 
The  latter,  let  us  say,  had,  as  a  rule,  a  look  of 
content. 

Notwithstanding,  it  seems  certain  that  the  mis- 
sions do  not  always  show  the  necessary  care  in  the 
selection  of  the  pupils  to  whom  the  State  conferred 
its  guardianship.  Thus  in  certain  establishments 
situated  in  the  south  of  Stanley  Pool  District  the 
committee  in  charge  of  the  enrollment  of  children 
recently  admitted  reported  the  following  facts : 

First:  Many  children  had  plainly  passed  the 
maximum  age  of  twelve  beyond  which  they  can  not 
be  taken  to  the  mission  against  their  will.     Certain 


The  Abandoned  Infants        127 

were  married,  according  to  the  native  custom,  and 
the  Fathers,  in  placing  them  in  the  mission,  had 
forbidden  them  from  that  time  to  see  their  wives. 

Second:  Many  were  not  abandoned  nor  even 
orphans;  many  were  reclaimed  by  their  parents. 
From  information  received  it  appears  that  the 
Fathers  protecting  themselves  under  the  authority 
of  the  State  followed  the  plan  which  was  in  reality 
a  recruiting  of  children.  Thus  applied,  the  Decree 
of  1890  would  become,  in  the  hands  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, the  means  of  acquiring  easily  abundant 
manual  labour  and  the  philanthropic  purpose  in- 
tended by  the  law  would  be  seriously  compromised. 

In  the  course  of  a  judicial  enquiry  made  in  this 
same  region  a  number  of  natives  declared  that  they 
had  been  retained  at  a  mission  against  their  wishes 
in  order  to  work;  several  complained  that  they  had 
brought  upon  themselves,  by  an  attempt  to  run 
away,  punishment,  such  as  being  placed  in  irons  and 
flogged.  The  Commissioner  of  the  Cataract  District 
has  often  received  from  escaped  children  from  the 
Kisantu  mission  complaints  of  the  treatment  they 
had  had. 

Not  satisfied  to  keep  in  the  missions  a  considerable 
number  of  young  people  who  do  not  come  under  the 
conditions  demanded  by  the  decree,  the  Fathers 
establish  groups  of  fifteen  or  twenty  in  the  hamlets 
surrounded  by  cultivated  fields  which  are  scattered 
about  the  district  and  are  known  as  farm  chapels. 
These  farm  chapels  are  actually  detached  mission 


128  The  Congo 

posts.  Their  occupants  are  kept  by  the  Fathers 
under  a  very  rigid  guardianship.  They  do  not  pos- 
sess, strictly  speaking,  anything;  their  produce  and 
the  domestic  animals  they  raise  belong,  in  general, 
to  the  mission.  They  rarely  receive  the  permission 
to  marry  or  to  return  to  their  native  villages.  The 
majority  of  the  natives  who  reside  here  are  neither 
orphans  nor  v^orkmen  engaged  by  contract.  They 
are  demanded  of  the  chiefs,  who  dare  not  refuse,  and 
a  coercion,  more  or  less  disguised,  is  necessary  to 
restrain  them.  The  system  pushed  to  the  extreme, 
comes  very  close  to  illegal  procedure  which  is  not 
even  remotely  related  to  the  application  of  the  decree 
regarding  abandoned  children. 

We  do  not  conceal  the  fact  that  the  question 
raised  is  difficult.  The  introduction  of  European 
civilisation  into  a  country  such  as  we  are  now  oc- 
cupied with  must  necessarily  call  for  a  curtailment 
of  personal  liberty,  and  consequently  places  tKe 
native  under  a  sort  of  guardianship.  Also  one  can 
understand  that  a  State,  by  virtue  of  the  civilising 
role  which  it  assumes,  can  regard  itself  as  the 
guardian  of  all  the  children  of  a  certain  age  and 
putting  aside  the  parents  or  natural  guardian,  under- 
take the  education  of  these  children  in  accordance 
with  the  objects  in  view  and  the  principles  it  deems 
best.  But  the  present  law  does  not  go  this  far.  It 
is  applicable  really  to  children  who  are  abandoned, 
that  is  to  say,  those  in  need  or  those  who  do  not 
have  in  the  village  any  relative  able  to  support  them. 


The  Abandoned  Infants        129 

The  period  of  State  guardianship  ought  to  be 
considerably  diminished.  The  pupil  having  reached 
the  age  of  sixteen,  which  elsewhere  is  that  of  legal 
majority,  ought  to  be  completely  released  from  the 
bonds  of  guardianship. 

But  if  we  think  that  the  law  of  1890  should  be 
reasonably  interpreted  and  wisely  applied  we  think 
also  that  there  is  room  to  complete  it  by  a  decree 
regarding  the  compulsory  education. 

In  fact,  we  have  observed  that  except  in  rare  cases 
where  a  native  is  enrolled  as  a  soldier  or  engaged 
as  a  labourer  of  the  State,  he  completely  escapes,  if 
he  is  an  adult,  the  civilising  influence  of  the  State 
or  of  the  missions  either  Catholic  or  Protestant.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  he  is  the  father  of  a  family,  unless 
under  some  compulsion,  he  will  not  send  his  child 
to  school. 

We,  therefore,  propose  that  a  law  should  provide 
that  fathers  living  within  a  certain  distance  of  the 
mission,  send  their  children  who  are  within  a  certain 
age  limit  to  be  determined,  and  which  should  not 
exceed  14  years,  to  the  mission  school  and  that 
under  the  pretext  of  practical  instruction  they  can 
not  be  employed  in  work  exceeding  their  strength. 

In  every  case,  upon  the  express  request  of  the 
parents,  the  children  will  not  be  obliged  to  take 
religious  instruction. 


CHAPTER  VII 

RECRUITING  OF  SOLDIERS  AND  WORKMEN 

I.    Soldiers 

CRITICISM  has  been  directed  recently  against 
the  way  in  which  the  Congo  State  recruits  a 
constabulary  that  it  is  necessary  to  maintain  in  the 
vast  territory.  It  has  been  alleged  that  "  the  means 
by  which  it  enrolls  soldiers  differ  very  little  from 
the  procedure  formerly  employed  by  those  who 
captured  slaves."  This  criticism  is  unjust.  This 
can  not  in  any  event  be  applied  to  the  present 
situation. 

The  regular  recruiting  of  the  army  takes  place 
through  voluntary  enrollments  and  the  annual  levy 
(Article  I  of  the  Decree  of  July  30,  1891).  The 
Governor  General  determines  annually  the  districts 
where  the  levy  is  to  be  made  as  well  as  the  propor- 
tion to  be  furnished  by  each  (Article  II).  The 
method  by  which  this  takes  place  is  determined  by 
the  District  Commissioner  in  consultation  with  the 
native  chiefs.  As  far  as  possible  it  is  done  by 
means  of  drawing  lots  (Article  IV). 

This  decree  is  followed,  with  the  exception,  how- 
ever, that  in  the  absence  of  a  census  there  can  be 

130 


Recruiting-  131 

no  drawing  of  lots.  As  a  rule,  the  chief,  upon  the 
demand  of  the  District  Commissioner,  designates 
the  men  who  are  to  constitute  the  contingent. 

It  is  seen  that  this  method  cannot  be  condemned 
without  contesting  the  right  of  the  State  to  require 
military  service  of  its  subjects.  Thus  the  Congo 
State  applies  only  the  principle  which  has  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  majority  of  the  European  countries. 

However,  there  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  Commission  some  abuses  that  are  occasioned 
by  these  recruitings.  Some  chiefs  of  expeditions 
have  thought  themselves  empowered  to  impose, 
under  the  name  of  fine  or  war  contribution,  the 
furnishing  of  a  certain  number  of  militia.  This 
irregularity  has  been  formally  forbidden  by  the 
Government,  and  we  think  it  has  disappeared. 

The  military  life  has  a  great  charm  for  the  native; 
it  answers  to  his  nature,  to  his  aptitude  and  to  his 
tastes;  we  think  we  can  say  that  the  conscription 
which  has  met  with  so  much  opposition  with  west- 
ern nations  of  Europe  is  the  form  of  public  service 
to  which  the  native  has  become  accustomed  with  the 
greatest  ease. 

More  than  that,  the  voluntary  enlistments  are 
numerous  and  many  of  the  militia  re-enter  the 
service  upon  the  expiration  of  their  term. 

It  is  also  true  that  the  soldiers  of  the  constabulary 
are,  in  general,  well  treated  and  well  cared  for. 
They  have  been  the  object  of  solicitude  by  the 
State.     They  receive  a  daily  wage  of  21  centimes. 


132  The  Congo 

Each  soldier  has  the  right  to  live  with  his  wife  and 
to  take  her  everywhere  with  him.  Moreover,  a 
recent  circular  of  the  Governor  provides  that  the 
new  conscripts  be  encouraged  to  select,  before  re- 
joining their  company,  a  wife  from  their  own 
country. 

The  Commission  visited  many  posts  and  camps 
of  instruction,  as  well  as  the  cabins  occupied  by  the 
soldiers'  families.  It  was  surprised  by  the  cleanli- 
ness and  good  condition  of  the  same.  It  can  have 
nothing  but  praise  for  the  excellent  appearance  and 
martial  spirit  of  the  troop.  The  complaints  which 
it  has  received  from  the  members  of  the  constabulary 
are  few  and  are  upon  matters  of  secondary  im- 
portance. 

On  the  contrary,  many  State  labourers  heard  by 
the  Commission,  expressed  their  regrets  that  they 
had  not  been  admitted  to  the  constabulary,  preferring 
it  to  their  own  engagements.  It  seems  wrong  to 
send  a  part  of  the  annual  recruits  to  manual  labour 
having  no  relation  with  the  army,  depriving  them 
of  the  privilege  of  wearing  some  sort  of  uniform 
and  putting  them  to  work  on  fortifications.  These 
"soldier-labourers''  (such  is  their  official  title) 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  change  made  in  their 
destination  without  their  consent. 

A  recent  Order  of  the  Governor  General  has  sup- 
pressed this  category  of  soldier-labourers,  but  the 
recruits,  instead  of  being  turned  over  to  the  constab- 
ulary or  returned  to  their  homes,  have  been  enlisted 


Recruiting  133 

as  labourers  for  the  remainder  of  their  term.  The 
Commission  has  called  this  irregularity  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  competent  authorities. 

The  Commission  is  convinced  that  military  train- 
ing is  the  most  efficacious  influence  towards  civil- 
isation that  has  as  yet  been  tried  upon  the  adult 
Congolese.  The  military  service,  made  somewhat 
long  by  the  difficulty  of  transforming  a  savage  into 
a  disciplined  soldier,  is  sufficient  to  improve  the 
native  who  has  been  under  this  restraining  in- 
fluence. This  influence  remains  with  the  former 
soldiers.  They  can  be  easily  recognised  by  their 
more  dignified  manner,  their  way  of  presenting 
themselves,  their  salutations,  the  care  with  which 
they  are  dressed  and  the  more  comfortable  houses 
that  they  build.  These  men  seek  the  contact  with 
the  whites  and  respect  authority. 

Certainly,  we  are  far  from  pretending  that  a  time 
spent  under  the  flag  is  sufficient  to  eradicate  entirely 
the  instincts  of  the  savage  or  that  discipline  will 
<:hange  the  nature  of  all  the  natives  enrolled.  On 
the  contrary,  we  have  had  occasion  to  point  out  the 
regrettable  excesses  that  have  been  committed 
during  the  military  expeditions,  especially  when  the 
vigilance  of  the  white  man  was  relaxed.  But  since 
the  missionaries  who  spend  their  energies  upon  the 
young  blacks  see  their  efforts  fail  to  civilise  the 
adults,  we  think  that  for  them  the  military  state  is 
the  only  one  that  can  insure  good  results. 

We  now  touch  upon  a  second  criticism :  the  State 


134  The  Congo 

has  been  reproached  with  having  chosen  its  soldiers 
from  the  savages  and  cannibals. 

It  is  certain  that  since  the  State  judged  it  best  to 
give  up  the  enlistment  of  volunteers  from  the  coast, 
who  formed  the  kernel  of  its  army,  and  to  recruit 
its  miUtia  from  its  own  territory,  it  draws  its  soldiers 
chiefly  from  the  vigorous  and  warlike  tribes  of  the 
Upper  Congo,  who  are  better  suited  to  military 
service  than  the  people  of  the  Lower  Congo,  brutal- 
ised  by  alcohol  and  weakened  by  the  slave  trade. 
Truly,  these  natives  were  savage  and  often  can- 
nibals; but  this  twofold  characterisation  is  ap- 
plicable to  the  majority  of  the  peoples  living  above 
the  Stanley  Pool.  The  State  had  no  choice.  Now 
the  recruiting  is  extended  to  cover  all  regions  and 
during  the  past  year  a  certain  number  of  militia 
were  drawn  from  the  districts  of  the  Lower  Congo. 

Still,  nothing  but  a  firm  discipline  and  an  inces- 
sant watch  can  prevent  absolutely  acts  of  savagery. 
Therefore,  the  Government  has  forbidden,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  sending  out  of  search  parties  or 
patrols  unless  accompanied  by  a  white  man,  as  well 
as  the  establishment  of  camps  made  up  wholly  of 
blacks.  With  the  same  purpose  in  view,  a  high  offi- 
cial has  recommended  the  frequent  relief  of  the  small 
garrisons  in  the  secondary  posts  often  commanded 
by  subalterns.  His  suggestion  has  been  followed. 
Soldiers  thus  detached  contract  bad  habits  and  it  is 
important  that  they  be  not  given  time  to  relapse 
from  the  strict  discipline  which  is  imposed  upon 


Recruiting-  135 

them   at   company  headquarters   or   camps   of   in- 
struction. 

2.    The  Labourers 

The  State,  Hke  individuals,  takes  into  its  service 
natives  whom  it  employs  for  different  sorts  of  work. 

The  class  (of  these  labourers),  at  present  very 
large,  is  exceedingly  interesting.  The  sojourn  at  the 
post  produces  the  best  effect  upon  the  black.  It  is  a 
first  contact  with  the  European  civilisation ;  it  works 
a  gradual  transformation,  quite  perceptible,  in  the 
habits  and  tastes  of  the  native.  The  labourers,  like 
the  soldiers,  form,  though  in  a  less  degree,  a  genuine 
class  of  semi-civilised. 

The  engagements  made  by  the  State  as  well  as 
all  that  are  made  between  foreigners  and  natives, 
are  regulated  by  the  Decree  of  November  8,  1888, 
regarding  the  labour  contracts.  This  law  is  one  that 
was  inspired  by  the  most  praiseworthy  motives. 
Its  purpose  is  evidently  to  safeguard  in  the  most 
efficacious  manner  the  principle  of  absolute  free- 
dom of  labour  contract. 

The  law  requires  that  every  contract  for  services 
be  drawn  up  at  the  charge  of  the  patron  or  master 
and  presented  in  writing  for  the  endorsement  of  the 
appropriate  authority.      (Article  13,  Section  i.) 

The  endorsement  cannot  be  made  until  it  is  sure 
that  the  workman  knows  perfectly  the  conditions 
of  the  engagement  and  that  he  accepts  them  of  his 
own  free  will.     (Article  13,  Section  2.) 


136  The  Congo 

The  Order  of  November  i,  1898,  designates  as 
authorities  competent  to  endorse  the  contracts,  the 
judge  of  the  district,  or  his  deputy  (also  a  jurist), 
and  it  is  only  in  the  absence  of  such  officers  that 
this  function  is  delegated  to  the  officials  of  the  ad- 
ministrative offices. 

The  period  of  contract  service  cannot  exceed 
seven  years,  and  it  cannot  be  renewed  except  through 
the  intervention  of  the  authority  cited  above.  The 
masters  or  patrons  must  show  at  all  times  that  the 
blacks  in  their  service  perform  their  labours  volun- 
tarily or  under  conditions  that  are  acceptable  to 
them.  (Articles  3  and  4.)  Severe  penalties  are  im- 
posed upon  the  masters  or  employers  who  violate 
these  provisions,  as  well  as  upon  the  employer  or 
blacks  who  refuse  to  carry  out  the  contract  to  which 
they  gave  their  approval.  These  penalties  must  be 
pronounced  by  the  courts.  (Article  5  of  the  Decree 
of  November  8,  1902.) 

In  the  Lower  Congo,  where  this  law  is  generally 
applied,  the  engagement  of  labourers  by  the  State, 
by  the  companies  or  by  private  individuals,  has 
never  been  the  object  of  criticism  in  its  relations  to 
the  blacks.  The  foreign  employers,  on  the  contrary, 
complain  of  being  helpless  against  the  bad  will  of 
their  labourers. 

The  judges  charged  with  thie  endorsement  of  the 
contracts  have  considered  it  as  a  supreme  duty,  in 
fact  a  real  point  of  honor,  to  assure  themselves  that 
the  black  enters  into  the  contract  willingly  and  that 


Recruiting-  137 

he  is  not  the  victim  of  misunderstanding  or 
violence. 

On  the  Upper  Congo,  on  the  contrary,  it  can  be 
said  that  in  no  respect  are  the  intentions  or  the  letter 
of  the  law  obeyed,  and  that  for  two  reasons : 

First  of  all,  the  number  of  judges  is  limited. 
There  are  large  areas  where  there  is  not  a  single 
one.  In  order  to  submit  his  contract  to  the  deputy 
for  his  endorsement,  it  would  often  be  necessary  for 
the  native  to  make  a  journey  of  several  months. 

Consequently  it  often  happens  that  the  contract  is 
not  drawn  up;  still  more  frequently,  the  contract  is 
approved  by  an  official  of  the  local  administration 
without  being  endorsed  by  a  judge.  Sometimes  the 
contracts  show  an  irregularity ;  they  are  signed  by 
the  District  Commissioner  or  the  chief  of  the  zone 
as  a  contracting  party,  endorsed  in  the  absence  of  a 
deputy  by  another  official  as  a  substitute  for  the 
deputy. 

The  Commission  saw  some  contracts  bearing  two 
signatures  made  by  the  same  hand.  The  territorial 
chief,  in  the  name  of  the  State,  engaged  the  native 
and  he  himself  ratified  the  contract  as  the  substitute 
for  the  deputy. 

The  control  which  the  law  intends  to  exercise 
becomes  in  such  cases  illusory.  In  most  cases  it 
happens  that  the  natives  in  these  regions  are  en- 
gaged, in  spite  of  all  precautions,  without  even 
having  the  conditions  of  their  service  explained  to 
them.    This  situation  can  be  relieved  only  by  having 


138  The  Congo 

a  larger  number  of  judges  in  the  Upper  Congo  and 
that  they  periodically  visit  the  places  within  their 
jurisdiction  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  that  the  laws 
are  observed  and  endorsing  at  the  same  time  the 
labour  contracts. 

Still,  all  of  the  difficulties  will  not  disappear  even 
if  the  reform  here  mentioned  should  be  brought 
about,  as  we  shall  explain  later.  It  is  unfortunately 
undeniable  that  in  many  regions  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  find  natives  who  will  willingly  engage  them- 
selves as  labourers.  Exception,  however,  must  be 
made  to  the  domestic,  or  hoy,  for  this  place  being 
lucrative  is  sought  after.  We  should  also  add  that  the 
steamboat  captains  easily  fill  up  their  crews  as  this 
employment  gives  the  natives  an  excellent  opportu- 
nity to  make  trips  free  of  expenses  and  affords  them 
a  chance  to  engage  in  a  small  trade.  But  beyond 
these  two  classes,  it  is  seldom  that  a  man  offers 
himself  to  the  State  of  his  own  accord.  This  fact 
is  not  surprising  when  there  is  borne  in  mind  the 
remarks  already  made  in  this  Report  in  regard  to  the 
indolence  of  the  native  and  the  almost  complete  lack 
of  his  wants. 

Very  often  then,  in  order  to  procure  workmen,  it 
is  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  coercion  and  impose 
upon  the  chiefs  the  obligation  to  furnish  labourers 
as  they  furnish  soldiers.  Sometimes  even,  the  sup- 
ply of  workmen  is  demanded  as  a  fine  or  ransom. 
The  Commission  listened  to  the  complaints  of 
several  native  Batchuas  (Lake  Tumba  region)  who 


Recruiting"  139 

said  they  had  been  imprisoned  one  day  when  they 
went  with  their  impost  of  chikwangue  to  Bikoro  and 
were  compelled  to  work. 

The  labourers  thus  obtained  are  sent  to  the  dif- 
ferent stations  furnished  with  a  contract  drawn  up 
in  the  irregular  fashion  referred  to.  These  articles 
state  that  they  are  engaged  for  a  term  of  three  or 
seven  years  for  a  wage  which  varies,  in  the  regions 
we  visited,  from  three  to  six  francs  a  month  and 
food. 

This  coercive  method  of  securing  workmen  has, 
as  a  rule,  not  been  in  use  as  long  as  it  was  only  a 
question  of  meeting  the  ordinary  needs  of  the  sta- 
tions, but  when  a  large  task,  such  as  the  building 
of  a  railroad  or  fortifications,  is  under  way,  this 
method  is  resorted  to  by  the  State  in  order  to  secure 
the  needful  number  of  labourers. 

At  the  time  when  the  Enquiry  Commission  was 
at  Stanleyville  there  were  at  work  on  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Stanleyville-Ponthierville  section  of  the 
Great  Lakes  railroad  three  thousand  labourers  re- 
cruited by  order  from  the  Eastern  Province,  only  a 
few  of  whom  were  under  formal  contract.  It  must 
not  be  thought  that  the  black,  employed  against  his 
will,  is  restive  under  these  conditions.  On  the  con- 
trary, with  his  habitual  fatalism,  he  quickly  accom- 
modates himself  to  the  new  situation. 

But  this  peculiarity  should  not  encourage  the 
violation  of  the  law.  The  situation  is  unfortunate; 
it  places  the  State  officials,  especially  the  judges. 


I40  The  Congo 

in  an  extremely  delicate  position.  A  prompt  remedy 
is  required.  In  view  of  the  urgency  of  certain  great 
works  of  public  utility,  the  State  ought  to  proclaim 
the  obligation  of  the  native  to  lend  his  assistance. 
In  a  new  country  this  duty  is  as  imperative  as  it  is 
for  its  citizens  to  run  to  the  defence  of  its  territory. 

If  our  way  of  seeing  things  is  adopted,  two  classes 
of  men  will  be  included  in  the  conscriptions :  some 
will  enter  the  constabulary  and  the  others  will  be 
employed  upon  the  large  works  of  public  utility 
from  which  the  natives  themselves  will  derive  im- 
mediate benefits,  such  as  railroads  or  wagon  roads. 
It  is  well  understood  that  these  works  must  be  spec- 
ified by  law  in  a  clear  and  precise  manner,  and  it 
should  be  forbidden  under  the  heaviest  penalties  to 
give  the  persons  recruited  for  this  purpose  any  em- 
ployment other  than  that  which  is  stipulated,  notably 
to  employ  them  for  the  exploitation  of  the  domain. 
The  number  of  labourers  should  also  be  fixed  by  law 
and  should  not  exceed  the  limits  made  absolutely 
necessary.  The  term  of  service  for  them  should  be 
shorter  than  for  the  soldiers  (three  years  as  a  max- 
imum), and  the  remuneration  should  be  the  same 
that  is  paid  in  that  region  to  volunteer  workmen. 

The  manual  labour  to  execute  the  important  works 
being  thus  assured  by  conscription,  the  greatest  care 
should  be  exercised  in  seeing  that  the  law  of  1888 
is  duly  observed. 

This  provision  would  remove,  beyond  doubt,  the 
criticisms  so  easily  made  by  those  who  hold  theoret- 


Recruiting-  141 

ical  principles  without  regard  for  practical  diffi- 
culties. 

We  have  confirmed  the  impossibility  of  the  State 
securing  by  voluntary  offers  the  needful  number  of 
workmen  for  carrying  on  the  construction  of  the 
public  utilities.  Now  these  works  are  those  on 
which  the  future  of  the  country  depends  and  they 
can  not  be  abandoned ;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  expect  their  completion  by  the  natives  as  im- 
posed work,  for  they  demand  continuous  labour  and 
this  is  incompatible  with  the  principle  of  forty  hours' 
work  a  month. 

According  to  our  opinion  the  law  ought  to  face 
the  problem  frankly  and  adapt  itself  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  situation  so  that  the  agents  will  not  be 
required  to  go  beyond  its  provisions  —  a  procedure 
so  fraught  with  danger. 

In  addition  to  the  method  of  securing  the  work- 
men and  the  regularity  of  the  contracts,  other  mat- 
ters have  been  criticised,  especially  by  the  judges. 

We  mention  first  of  all  those  regarding  the  long- 
term  engagements. 

The  unfortunate  features  of  long  engagements 
are  especially  noticeable  in  the  case  of  children.  It 
happens  that  the  District  Commissioners  employ, 
particularly  for  the  fields,  children  of  seven  and 
eight  years  who  are  bound  for  a  period  of  several 
years  by  a  contract  whose  provisions  they  probably 
did  not  thoroughly  understand.  Now  according  to 
the  instructions  of  the  Director  of  Justice,  the  of- 


142  The  Cong-o 

ficials  charged  with  endorsing  the  contracts  cannot 
object  if  the  children  say  they  accept.  There  may 
be  reasons  for  permitting  a  child  to  engage  himself 
by  contract,  which  is  for  him  a  guarantee,  but  the 
judge  ought  to  have  the  right  to  refuse  his  endorse- 
ment if  he  is  convinced  that  the  child  is  acting  with- 
out a  full  comprehension  of  what  he  is  doing.  In 
any  event,  the  contract  term  of  service  should  never 
be  more  than  a  year  or  two. 

Of  course  one  should  remember  the  precocity  of 
the  native  and  the  fact  that  the  intelligence  of  the 
black  reaches  its  apogee  at  the  age  of  thirteen  or 
fourteen. 

Nevertheless,  even  for  adults,  the  maximum  term 
of  seven  years  permitted  by  the  law  is  excessive. 
The  black,  as  we  have  seen,  has  a  very  vague  notion 
of  time.  And  on  the  other  hand,  the  average  life  of 
the  native  is  much  shorter  than  that  of  the  white 
man.  So  that  the  term,  which,  at  the  time  of  mak- 
ing the  contract,  is  not  fully  appreciated,  will  con- 
sume the  greater  part  of  his  life.  Let  us  add  that 
the  wages  paid,  whether  in  eatables,  merchandise  or 
whatever  may  take  the  place  of  money,  change  value 
so  easily  in  the  Congo  that  it  often  happens  that 
after  a  very  short  time  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
wage  specified  in  the  contract  is  not  the  same. 

This  leads  us  to  the  important  question  of  wages. 
They  are  not  always  sufficient,  especially  for  those 
who  have  a  family  to  support.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  to  us  that,  particularly  in  the  territory  of  the 


Recruiting"  143 

Katanga  Committee,  the  average  wage  paid  the 
workmen  is  simply  what  is  necessary  for  their  sub- 
sistence. In  other  important  centres,  at  first  sight 
the  payment  seems  ample,  but  it  is  insufficient  be- 
cause of  the  relative  clearness  of  the  living  expenses. 
Thus  at  Boma,  the  compensation  of  six  francs  a 
month  and  food  paid  to  the  State  workmen  can  not, 
according  to  general  opinion,  permit  them  to  meet 
the  needs  of  their  families. 

The  examples  which  we  have  just  given  show,  in 
addition,  how  the  economic  conditions  can  vary 
from  district  to  district.  This  is  another  cause  of 
complaint.  It  happens,  in  fact,  that  the  labourers 
engaged  in  the  Upper  Congo  at  the  wage  customary 
in  that  region  find,  when  sent  below,  that  it  is  alto- 
gether insufficient  for  their  support  in  their  new 
residence  and  is  less  than  is  received  by  the  work- 
men from  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  When  this 
occurs,  the  judge,  the  guardian  of  the  black,  ought 
to  demand  that  the  wage  of  a  workman  brought 
from  another  locality  should  be  made  equal  to  that 
of  his  fellow  labourers. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  payment  of  labourers  is 
made,  throughout  the  Upper  Congo,  in  merchandise 
or  in  brass  rods  (mitakos).  Let  us  remember  that 
these  articles  are  subject  to  depreciation,  which  fre- 
quently causes  considerable  loss  to  the  workmen,  so 
we  have  advised  the  State  to  extend  as  far  as  pos- 
sible the  payment  in  cash,  which  gives  such  satis- 
faction in  the  Lower  Congo. 


144  The  Congo 

We  shall  also  point  out  that  the  condition  of  the 
villages  of  labourers  of  the  State  grouped  around 
the  posts,  unlike  what  we  observed  in  the  case  of 
the  soldiers'  villages,  is  not  satisfactory.  In  the 
interests  of  hygiene  and  the  welfare  of  the  men,  a 
reform  is  necessary  at  once. 

There  remains  for  us  to  say  a  few  words  regard- 
ing disciplinary  punishment.  The  blacks  engaged 
by  the  State  ought  to  accept,  under  the  conditions 
named  in  their  contract,  the  disciplinary  regulations 
which  are  imposed.  They  are  practically  the  same 
as  those  that  apply  to  the  soldiers.  The  punishment 
most  frequently  used  is  the  lash  (chicotte).  The 
regulations  fix  fifty  strokes  as  the  maximum  and 
the  convict  can  not  receive  more  than  twenty- five  in 
any  one  day.  The  application  must  cease  in  case  of 
fainting  or  if  a  wound  results. 

We  do  not  think  any  one  familiar  with  colonial 
affairs  can  question  the  necessity  for  corporal  pun- 
ishment. Without  it,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
maintain  discipline  amongst  the  personnel  around 
the  posts.  Besides,  the  negroes  accept  it  without 
serious  objection. 

Private  parties  and  notably  the  agents  of  the 
commercial  companies,  are  not  permitted  to  use  the 
lash  on  their  black  employees. 

In  spite  of  the  restrictions  imposed  by  law  upon 

the  use  of  the  chicotte,  it  is  often  abused,  either  in 

resorting  too  frequently  to  it  for  slight  offences  or 

in  exceeding  the  limits  prescribed. 

*The    Commission    received    from   the   labourers 


Recruiting-  145 

many  complaints  upon  this  subject.  Here  again, 
one  must  make  due  allowance  for  the  habitual  ex- 
aggeration of  the  black.  On  more  than  one  occasion 
the  Commission  found  it  necessary  to  distrust  the 
fantastic  number  of  lashes  which  a  witness  said  he 
had  received  in  a  single  day,  and  very  often  it  was 
able  to  prove  conclusively  that  the  complainant  was 
lying. 

Still,  it  is  undeniable  that  the  chiefs  of  stations 
are  led  to  violate  the  provisions  by  the  desire  to  in- 
flict a  punishment  that  will  serve  as  an  example.  It 
is  equally  true  that  these  breaches  of  the  law  are  not 
always  visited  with  the  punishment  deserved,  be- 
cause the  administrative  authority,  surrounded  by 
difficulties,  fears  to  weaken  his  influence  with  the 
natives,  which  in  a  colony,  is  a  matter  of  great 
moment.  The  Commission  knows  from  its  own 
observation  of  two  instances  where  the  indictments 
of  the  court  against  omissions  of  this  sort,  which 
occurred  in  the  Botanical  Garden  at  Eala,  were 
ignored  in  accordance  with  higher  orders. 

This  procedure,  whose  purpose  we  perfectly  un- 
derstand, is  none  the  less  regrettable.  If  it  is  de- 
sired that  abuses  cease,  the  agents  must  be  con- 
vinced that  every  transgression  of  the  rules  shall 
be  pitilessly  reprimanded. 

The  regulations  formally  prohibit  the  whipping 
of  women.  Some  violations  of  this  rule  have  been 
reported,  but  they  are  isolated  cases  and  exceedingly 
rare.  At  all  events,  the  Government  has  never 
shown  anv  toleration  towards  this  abuse. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

JUSTICE 

AT  its  very  beginning  the  Free  State  created  its 
judicial  system.  At  different  times  the  Gov- 
ernment extended  and  strengthened  this  organisa- 
tion, having  in  view  the  new  conditions  born  of  the 
progressive  opening  up  of  the  territory. 

We  shall  indicate  broadly  the  present  condition. 

In  civil  and  commercial  causes  the  court  of  first 
instance  is  the  lower  court  at  Boma  and  in  cases  of 
appeal,  to  the  Court  of  Appeals  which  also  holds 
sessions  at  Boma.^ 

Criminal  offences  come  before  the  lower  court  at 
Boma,  in  the  first  instance,  or  the  territorial  courts 
or  courts-martial. 

The  court  at  Boma  and  the  territorial  courts  can 
try,  each  within  the  limits  fixed  by  decrees,  all  viola- 
tions of  law  committed  by  persons  not  subject  to 
military  law  or  cases  involving  civilians  and  mem- 
bers of  the  military. 

However,  the  trial  for  offences  committed  by 
persons  of  a  European  race,  even  in  the  military 
category,  is,  in  every  case  where  the  law  punishes 

^When  the  amount  in  litigation  exceeds  25,000  francs  the 
Superior  Council  hears  the  appeal  from  the  Court  of  Appeals. 

146 


Justice  147 

the  offence  with  death,  referred  to  the  court  of  first 
instance  of  the  Lower  Congo. 

The  courts-martial  try  the  military  prisoners. 
The  appeal,  in  penal  matters,  is  submitted  to  the 
Court  of  Appeals  at  Boma  in  all  cases  coming  from 
court  of  first  instance  and  from  territorial  courts. 
Those  that  were  heard  by  a  court-martial  are  in 
case  of  appeal,  sent  to  a  council  of  war  having  ap- 
pellate functions.  It  consists  of  the  president  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  and  two  members  designated  by 
the  Governor  General  who  can  not  be  below  the  rank 
of  officer. 

The  decisions  rendered  in  penal  matters  are  not 
subject  to  review  by  the  Court  of  Appeals. 

There  are  at  present  territorial  courts  at  Matadi, 
Leopoldville,  Coquilhatville,  New  Antwerp,  Baso- 
ko,  Stanleyville,  Lusambo,  Popkabaka,  Kabinda, 
Toa,  Uvira,  Lukafu,  Niangara  and  Lado. 

The  number  of  courts-martial  is  greater  than  the 
number  of  territorial  courts  and  as  a  rule  they  have 
sessions  in  the  same  place  as  the  latter.  The  terri- 
torial judges,  except  in  a  few  cases,  are  members 
of  the  court-martial. 

The  functions  of  public  prosecutor  are  discharged 
in  cases  before  the  court  of  appeals  and  the  appellate 
council  of  war  by  the  State's  Attorney  and  before  the 
other  courts,  civil  and  military,  by  the  deputies  of 
this  official. 

The  officers  of  the  public  prosecutor's  department 
not  only  investigate  the  cases  and  verify  the  facts  in 


14S  The  Congo 

the  case  of  violations  of  law  but  also  draw  up  the 
indictment  ( instruction) . 

They  combine  the  functions  assigned  in  Belgium 
to  "  magistrats  du  Ministere  public ''  with  those  of 
''  juges  d'instruction  "  (approximately,  district  at- 
torney and  grand  jury).  The  public  prosecutor  and 
his  officers,  says  the  law,  exercise  their  functions 
"  under  the  high  authority  of  the  Governor  General '' 
but  they  cannot  prosecute  a  person  of  any  European 
race  except  with  the  consent  of  the  Governor  Gen- 
eral.    This  rule  is  imposed  by  formal  instructions. 

Besides  the  judges  of  the  bench  there  are  in  the 
Congo  a  large  number  of  officers  of  the  judicial 
police  placed  under  the  supervision  of  the  State's 
Attorney.  The  decrees  and  statutes  fix  for  each 
one  the  limits  of  his  authority  and  of  his  territory. 

Some  are  commissioned  to  investigate  and  verify 
all  offences  within  their  jurisdiction;  these  are  the 
District  Commissioners,  chiefs  of  zones  and  chiefs 
of  posts ;  others  are  charged  with  the  investigation 
and  report  upon  a  limited  class  of  offences;  these 
are  the  treasury  agents,  post  agents,  etc. 

Another  peculiar  feature  of  the  judicial  system 
should  be  mentioned :  the  members  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals,  the  judge  of  the  inferior  court,  the  pro- 
secuting attorney  and  his  deputies  must  be  trained 
judges.  They  have  no  other  functions,  must  be  of 
a  certain  age  and  capacity,  are  doctors  of  law  and 
can  be  appointed  only  by  decree. 

There  are  some  territorial  judges,  members  of  the 


Justice  149 

courts-martial  and  substitutes  who  do  not  have  to 
be  professional  judges  and  whom  the  Governor 
General  can  select  from  amongst  the  officials  of 
the  administrative  department.  At  present  prac- 
tically all  of  the  substitutes  are  doctors  of  law. 

The  territorial  judges  at  Matadi  and  Leopoldville 
are  trained  judges.  In  all  the  other  courts  the 
functions  of  judge  are  confided  to  other  officials, 
usually  to  District  Commissioners. 

The  outline  which  we  have  just  given  shows  that 
the  Free  State  has  seriously  considered  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  judiciary.  We  do  not  think  that  it  is 
perfect  or  that  it  meets  all  of  the  existing  needs,  but 
we  are  convinced  it  will  bear  comparison  with 
the  judiciary  organisation  of  many  colonies  more 
than  twenty-five  years  old. 

The  Commission  has  not  received  any  complaints 
during  its  long  enquiry  and  has  no  criticism  to  make 
in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  the  courts  presided 
over  by  trained  judges  discharge  the  important  and 
delicate  duties  that  are  confided  to  them. 

The  Commission  has  been  able  to  confirm  from 
personal  examination  that  the  judges  are,  as  a  rule, 
animated  by  a  great  zeal  and  that  they  fill  their 
mission  with  an  impartiality  that  merits  all  possible 
praise. 

However,  three  criticisms  may  be  directed  against 
the  present  situation,  the  first  in  regard  to  the  com- 
position of  the  courts ;  second,  that  their  number  is 
too  limited  in  comparison  with  the  large  territory; 


150  The  Congfo 

third,  the  dependency  of  the  public  prosecutor  upon 
the  administrative  authority. 

We  shall  discuss  these  in  succession. 

We  have  said  that  only  the  territorial  judges  of 
the  Lower  Congo  are  magistrates  by  training.  In 
general,  the  District  Commissioner  discharges  this 
function. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  the  complica- 
tions that  result  from  this  added  duty. 

In  spite  of  their  desire  to  do  well,  administrative 
agents  charged  with  judicial  functions,  can  not, 
when  absorbed  with  duties  already  too  numerous, 
acquire  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the 
land.  They  also  lack  the  fundamental  studies,  so 
valuable  in  a  position  of  this  character.  It  has  there- 
fore been  found  desirable  to  refer  the  most  important 
civil  and  penal  cases  to  the  Boma  court  for  trial. 

The  unsatisfactory  features  of  the  judicial  cen- 
tralisation will  be  seen  at  once,  for  it  means  the  ex- 
tension of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Boma  court  over 
the  entire  territory.  This  compels  the  Europeans 
who  are  cited  to  appear  before  this  court  to  make 
very  long  journeys  at  great  loss  of  time  and  some- 
times at  considerable  expense. 

But  these  long  journeys  are  especially  prejudicial 
to  the  blacks.  It  is  a  sad  fact,  verified  by  observa- 
tion, the  judges  told  us,  that  a  large  number  of 
blacks  who  come  down  from  the  Upper  Congo  as 
witnesses  never  see  again  their  native  villages,  but 
die  during  the  trip  they  are  forced  to  make.     The 


Justice  151 

resisting  power  of  the  native  to  changes  of  habits 
and  foods  is,  so  to  speak,  practically  zero. 

Even  when  they  are  the  objects  of  every  possible 
care,  the  ranks  of  the  unhappy  creatures  can  be  seen 
thinned  out  by  homesickness  for  the  forests  of 
Equatorial  Africa.  Is  it  therefore  astonishing  that 
the  mortality  is  still  greater  when  they,  during  the 
long  journey  to  give  testimony,  are  poorly  lodged 
or  insufficiently  fed  ?  ^ 

The  number  of  those  who  died  has  created  a  great 
impression  upon  the  natives.  The  simple  word 
"  Boma  "  frightens  them.  It  is  also  at  the  present 
time  exceedingly  difficult  to  secure  the  blacks  as 
witnesses,  sometimes  it  is  impossible. 

A  native  of  the  Upper  Congo,  summoned  as  a 
witness,  escapes  into  the  forest.  He  must  be  treated 
as  a  prisoner,  looked  for,  and  sometimes  when 
caught  he  must  be  chained,  or  in  all  cases  some  co- 
ercive measure  must  be  resorted  to  to  induce  him 
to  appear  before  the  court. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  call  attention  to  the  wrong 
this  state  of  affairs  does  to  the  cause  of  justice  and 
its  operations.  It  often  happens  that  a  native  who 
has  been  wronged  prefers  to  let  the  matter  pass  with- 
out an  attempt  to  secure  justice  rather  than  subject 
himself  to  the  fatigues  and  dangers  of  the  trip  to 

*  A  circular  which  appears  in  Recueil  Mensuel  for  January, 
1905,  goes  into  minute  details  in  regard  to  the  treatment  which 
must  be  accorded  the  blacks  when  called  to  testify  before  the 
courts. 


152  The  Congo 

Boma.  A  great  injustice!  offences  go  unpunished, 
the  abuses  multiply,  dissatisfaction  of  the  population 
increases  and  sometimes  shows  itself  in  revolt  —  a 
condition  that  justice  could  have  prevented. 

Sometimes  also,  in  the  neighbourhoods  where 
there  are  Protestant  mission  posts,  the  black,  instead 
of  applying  to  the  judge,  his  natural  protector,  ac- 
quires the  habit,  whenever  he  has  a  fancied  griev- 
ance against  an  agent,  chief  of  post  or  chief  of  zone, 
of  confiding  to  the  missionary.  The  latter  listens, 
assists  him  as  far  as  lies  in  his  power,  and  becomes 
the  organ  of  all  the  complaints  of  the  region. 

This  explains  the  surprising  authority  of  the  mis- 
sionaries in  certain  parts  of  the  country.  Their  in- 
fluence is  not  restricted  to  the  natives  who  are  under 
their  religious  teaching,  but  it  extends  to  all  of  the 
villages  to  whose  grievances  they  have  listened. 

The  missionary  becomes  in  the  eyes  of  the  native 
the  sole  representative  of  equity  and  justice ;  he  adds 
to  the  importance  acquired  by  his  religious  zeal  the 
prestige  which,  in  the  best  interests  of  the  State, 
ought  to  belong  to  the  judge. 

Another  drawback  to  the  exclusive  competency 
of  the  Lower  Congo  court  in  important  affairs,  is 
the  inevitable  delay  necessitated  by  reason  of  the 
long  distances  which  separate  Boma  from  many 
places  in  the  State. 

Before  the  documents,  the  witnesses  and  the  ac- 
cused can  be  brought  to  the  session  of  the  court, 
many  months  and  sometimes  years,   must  elapse. 


Justice  153 

In  the  meantime  the  whites  have  returned  to  Europe, 
the  blacks  can  no  longer  be  found,  recollection  of  the 
events  have  become  dim  and  many  of  the  facts  have 
passed  into  legend.  It  also  happens  that  the  judges, 
unable  to  reach  a  decision  because  of  a  lack  of  evi- 
dence, discharge  the  case  and,  because  of  the  great 
distance,  not  finding  it  possible  to  make  personal 
investigation,  they  are  unable  to  draw  up  a  new  in- 
dictment. 

We  have  spoken  until  now  of  penal  cases.  The 
same  difficulties  exist  in  civil  cases. 

In  the  Stanleyville  zone,  for  example,  the  com- 
mercial transactions  are  numerous.  Can  one  in  case 
of  disagreement  go  from  Stanleyville  to  Boma  to 
submit  the  case  to  the  judge?  What  a  loss  of  time 
and  what  an  expense  would  this  voyage  inflict! 

The  Commission  thinks  that  if  the  Government 
of  the  Free  State  should  eliminate  the  greater  part 
of  the  obstacles  to  prompt  and  efficacious  judicial 
action,  if  it  should  substitute  trained  judges  for  the 
administrative  officials  who  now  act  as  judges  in 
the  territorial  courts,  such  a  change  would  afford 
proper  guarantees ;  there  would  no  longer  be  a  rea- 
son for  withdrawing  from  them  the  trial  in  civil 
affairs  nor  to  limit  their  competency  in  penal  mat- 
ters. There  would  remain,  it  is  true,  this  inconve- 
nience that  the  cases  in  which  appeal  might  be  made 
would  have  to  be  referred  to  Boma,  but  the  court 
and  the  appellate  council  of  war  have,  according  to 
law,  the  right  to  pass  upon  the  record  and  this  might 


154  The  Congfo 

become  the  usual  custom  when  the  minutes  of  the 
trial  by  the  lower  courts  are  compiled  under  the  di- 
rection of  a  trained  judge. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  existing  territorial  courts 
is  too  large  and  it  would  be  desirable  to  see  them 
increased  in  number,  but  this  second  reform  can  only 
be  accomplished  by  degrees.  The  essential  thing 
is  that  the  natives  of  the  territory  may  easily  lay 
their  complaints  before  a  judge  without  being 
obliged  to  go  to  the  capital  of  the  district.  It  is  of 
course  permissible  for  them  to  appeal  to  the  justice 
of  the  police  whose  residence  is  usually  nearer  than 
that  of  the  deputy,  but  this  official  is  often  the  ad- 
ministrative agent  and  performs  a  variety  of  duties ; 
he  collects  the  imposts,  enforces  coercion  and  makes 
the  levy  of  labourers.  It  is  to  him  very  often  that 
the  black  will  ascribe,  rightly  or  wrongly,  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  abuses  of  which  he  wishes  to 
complain.  Besides,  in  the  large  districts,  where  the 
State  is  represented  only  by  the  commander  of  a 
corps  of  police,  would  the  native  bring  to  the  agents 
of  the  company  complaints  against  themselves? 

Many  judges  are  of  the  opinion  that  great  prog- 
ress would  be  realised  if  the  officials  of  the  police 
would  be  reminded  of  their  judicial  functions  and  if 
they  were  placed  in  possession  of  instructions  suffi- 
ciently precise  in  regard  to  the  way  in  which  they 
should  be  discharged.  There  are,  it  seems,  some 
officials  who  never  make  a  report;  others  draw  up 
reports    which    are    absolutely    insufficient,    satis- 


Justice  155 

fying  themselves  with  indicating  the  nature  of  the 
offence  and  the  suspected  offender  without  giving 
either  the  date,  the  place,  the  chief  circumstances 
concerning  the  act  or  the  names  of  the  witnesses. 

Without  denying  that  the  judicial  functions  of 
the  police  official  can  be  improved  we  do  not  think 
for  the  reason  mentioned  above  that  too  much  should 
be  expected  of  these  officials. 

It  is  to  the  deputy,  doctor  of  laws,  to  whom  the 
natives  should  be  allowed  to  make  their  complaint. 
At  the  present  time  the  deputies,  with  a  commendable 
zeal,  travel  over  their  territory  to  hear  complaints 
or  to  gather  information  regarding  them.  But 
usually  there  is  at  each  court  only  one  prosecuting 
official ;  the  preparation  of  cases  often  compels  this 
officer  to  make  long  trips  which  sometimes  last  sev- 
eral months. 

Some  judges  have  pointed  out  to  the  Commission 
that  it  is  difficult  or  even  impossible  to  pass  judg- 
ment upon  cases,  sometimes  important  ones,  because 
of  their  own  travels  or  of  those  of  the  District  Com- 
missioners who  discharge  almost  throughout  the 
Upper  Congo  the  duties  of  judges,  so  that  sessions 
cannot  be  held,  or  if  held,  only  with  great  difficulty. 
Because  of  this,  there  are  inevitable  and  regrettable 
delays. 

It  would  be  best  to  designate  in  the  case  of  each 
court,  or  at  least  with  those  whose  district  is  the 
most  extensive,  two  judges  of  the  bench.  So  that 
while  one  could  occupy  himself  with  the  investiga- 


156  The  Congo 

tion,  the  other  could  insure  regular  sessions  of  the 
court.  The  cases  would  be  quickly  prepared,  more 
rapidly  tried  and  the  frequent  contact  of  the  judge 
with  the  native  would  increase  the  confidence  of  the 
latter  in  justice  and  consequently  in  the  State. 

It  would  likewise  be  well,  in  order  to  insure  a 
prompt  administration  of  justice,  to  give  to  all 
trained  judges  the  right  to  try  certain  cases,  even 
without  the  assistance  of  the  public  prosecutor  or 
clerk  of  the  court. 

Would  it  not  be  possible  to  allow  every  judge 
while  on  his  circuit  to  try  on  the  spot,  and  even  with- 
out the  right  of  appeal,  minor  offences  and  civil 
cases  of  small  importance?  With  the  procedure 
somewhat  simplified,  the  indictment  could  be  drawn 
and  the  trial  take  place  during  the  same  session :  the 
complainant,  the  defendant  and  witnesses  are  all 
present  and  if  it  should  be  necessary  to  ask  for  fur- 
ther verifications,  the  judge  could  easily  obtain 
them. 

If  the  white  man,  instead  of  being  isolated  and 
beyond  all  restraint,  sometimes  even  sure  of  impu- 
nity, always  had  before  him  the  fear  of  the  super- 
vision of  the  judge,  many  of  the  abuses  and  acts  of 
ill-treatment,  now  the  cause  of  regret,  would  no 
longer  exist. 

We  now  arrive  at  the  third  criticism  mentioned, 
that  which  refers  to  the  independence  of  the  magis- 
tracy. 

Here  a  distinction  must  be  made. 


Justice  157 

The  courts,  and  in  general,  the  judges  enjoy  ab- 
solute independence  in  making  their  decisions  and 
we  desire  no  better  proof  of  this  than  the  decisions 
that  have  been  rendered  by  the  Boma  court.* 

The  same  is  not  the  case  with  the  deputies.  Sev- 
eral have  drawn  the  attention  of  the  Commission  to 
this. 

The  deputy  when  making  his  circuit  is  under 
obligations  for  transportation,  food  and  escort  to 

'  The  independence  and  the  severity  of  the  courts,  espe- 
cially as  regards  the  cases  resting  upon  the  ill-treatment  of 
the  blacks,  have  been  supported  and  sustained  by  the  State. 

The  report  of  the  Secretaries  General  to  the  King  Sover- 
eign dated  July  15,  1900,  contains  the  following; 

"  The  most  important  task  that  belongs  to  the  administra- 
tion of  justice  is  the  protection  of  t"he  native  in  his  person, 
property  and  liberty.  We  have  repeated  elsewhere  the  instruc- 
tions that  the  Government  continues  to  give  to  its  judicial 
officers,  and  it  is  just  to  say  that  they  prosecute  without 
swerving  the  attempts  upon  the  rights  of  the  natives.  They 
have  even  been  charged  with  an  excess  of  zeal  in  exercising 
in  too  strict  a  manner  their  protective  functions  towards  the 
black  by  prosecuting  the  slightest  inroad  upon  the  rights  of  y^ 

the  native  and  in  this  way  belittling  the  authority  of  the 
European  in  the  eyes  of  the  native.  The  Government  can 
only  continue  to  issue  instructions  that  will  insure  the  abso- 
lute respect  for  the  law  and  approve  its  officers  who  prosecute 
all  violations. 

"  It  does  not  even  hesitate  to  say  that  in  suppressing  acts 
of  ill-treatment  towards  the  natives  an  excess  of  zeal  will 
meet  with  greater  approval  than  an  excess  of  indulgence. 
This  latter  criticism  has  been  applied  to  Congolese  justice. 
It  is  not  justifiable.  One  would  look  in  vain  for  a  case  of 
violence  committed  by  a  white  man  upon  a  native  that  did 
not  receive  its  just  deserts  in  case  proof  was  forthcoming." 


158  The  Congo 

the  District  Commissioner,  who  can  grant  or  refuse 
the  canoe,  soldiers,  police  or  food  supplies. 

Measures  should  be  taken  that  will  make  it  pos- 
sible for  the  public  prosecutor's  officers  to  have 
these  necessities  or  requisition  them  in  cases  of 
urgency. 

But  it  is  especially  important  that  a  judge  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duties  be  made  completely  inde- 
pendent of  the  administrative  authority. 

From  circulars  of  instruction  addressed  to  the 
officials  of  the  public  prosecutor  it  appears  that  the 
deputies  connected  with  the  territorial  courts  can  not 
institute  prosecution  against  a  person  not  a  native 
without  having  previously  obtained  the  permission 
of  their  chief,  the  prosecuting  attorney.  Now  the 
latter  cannot  grant  this  approval  except  with  the 
consent  of  the  Governor  General,  who  has  the 
supreme  supervision  over  the  bench. 

It  is  easily  realised  how,  in  certain  cases,  the  ad- 
ministrative authority  can  rightly  intervene  in  judi- 
cial affairs.  In  the  majority  of  the  countries  of 
western  Europe,  the  machinery  of  prosecution  is 
placed  under  the  Minister  of  Justice  who  can,  in 
criminal  cases,  dictate  its  line  of  action.  In  addi- 
tion to  this  principle,  one  might  add  other  consider- 
ations suggested  by  the  special  conditions  that  sur- 
round the  Congolese  magistracy,  such  as,  for  ex- 
ample, the  youth  and  inexperience  of  many  of  the 
deputies. 

But  it  cannot  be  admitted  that  the  intervention  of 


Justice  159 

the  administrative  authority  should  make  itself  felt 
to  the  extent  of  arresting  the  course  of  justice.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the 
Congo  the  officers  of  the  public  prosecutor  unite 
with  their  functions  those  assigned  to  the  grand 
jury  (jiiges  d' instruction)  and  to  committing  magis- 
trates. 

Still  other  reasons  argue  in  favor  of  the  independ- 
ence of  the  bench. 

We  have  seen  that  the  greater  part  of  the  laws  of 
the  State  are  enforced  partially  in  the  Upper  Congo. 
It  is  therefore  absolutely  necessary  that  an  inde- 
pendent authority  see  to  their  execution.  In  other 
words,  the  deputies  ought  to  be  able  to  freely  dis- 
charge their  functions  as  guardians  of  the  law,  even 
over  the  affairs  of  the  administrative  power. 

We  do  not  think  that  the  reform  which  we 
propose  presents  any  serious  difficulty.  Mere 
proceedings  of  inquest  can  not  have  irreparable 
consequences. 

As  to  the  prosecutions,  the  deputies  certainly 
should  not  institute  them  too  easily,  and  it  is  well 
that  their  action  be  supervised.  We  also  consider 
that  the  authority  to  prosecute,  given  by  the 
Public  Prosecutor,  is  a  guarantee  which  should  not 
disappear  from  Congo  laws.  But  this  official, 
who  is  always  a  judge  of  experience,  should 
have  the  power  to  act  upon  his  own  initiative ;  there 
is  no  sufficient  reason  to  subordinate  his  decision 
to  the  opinion  of  the  Governor  General.    He  ought 


i6o  The  Cong-o 

to  be,  with  respect  to  this  high  official,  in  the  situa- 
tion which  he  would  hold  in  Belgium  with  respect 
to  the  Minister  of  Justice.  In  freeing  the  prose- 
cuting attorney,  in  this  way,  there  will  be  avoided 
the  suspicion  which  always  exists  when  a  trans- 
action is  abandoned  by  higher  authority. 

The  Commission  has  found,  in  fact,  that  very 
often  a  case  begun  by  a  deputy  against  a  white  man 
for  having  ill-treated  the  natives  remained  unfin- 
ished by  administrative  decision.  As  no  reasons 
were  given  for  these  decisions  it  would  be  hard  to 
say  to  what  extent  they  were  justified.  In  any 
event,  it  is  necessary  that  hereafter  the  responsi- 
bility for  such  measures  be  left  to  the  judicial 
authority. 

The  Commission  can  admit  only  one  exception  to 
this  rule. 

It  is  understood  that  the  Government,  in  the 
Congo  as  well  as  in  all  other  countries,  reserves  to 
itself  the  right  to  judge  when  it  is  necessary  to 
prosecute  political  offences.  The  intervention  of 
the  Governor  General  should  be  retained  in  all  cases 
where  there  is  an  offence  committed  against  the 
safety  of  the  State. 

The  Commission  noticed  the  presence  in  the 
prisons  of  a  considerable  number  of  prisoners  figur- 
ing on  the  lists  as  "political  prisoners''  (detenus 
politiques).  They  were  incarcerated  under  a  sim- 
ple administrative  order.  The  reason  of  their  deten- 
tion has  nothing  political  about  it.     They  are,  in 


Justice  i6i 

the  majority  of  cases,  natives  who  have  neglected  to 
furnish  their  prestations  —  those  who,  under  the  ap- 
pHcation  of  the  new  law  could  be  subjected  to  coer- 
cion. There  are  others  who  gave  asylum  to  delin- 
quents or  those  in  flight  from  justice.  We  also  saw 
labourers  under  discipline  and  women  who  had  lived 
lives  of  prostitution. 

All  are  submitted  to  the  same  regulations  as  the 
breakers  of  the  common  law,  and  some  have  seen 
their  detention  extend  into  months. 

The  regulations  of  the  prisons  mention  the  cate- 
gory of  political  prisoners ;  but  these  regulations  do 
not  rest  upon  any  law ;  and  on  the  other  hand  noth- 
ing defines  the  authority  which  can  demand  their 
detention,  the  cases  that  are  applicable,  the  formali- 
ties to  be  observed  and  the  duration  of  imprison- 
ment. 

It  is  strange  that  while  the  law  throws  around  the 
liberty  of  the  individual  all  possible  guarantees, 
while  it  protects  him  against  every  form  of  abuse 
with  the  provisions  borrowed  from  the  Belgian  Code 
of  April  20,  1874,  in  regard  to  preventive  detention, 
it  leaves  the  operations  of  administrative  authority 
without  control  and,  one  might  say,  without  brakes. 

We  understand  perfectly  that  in  a  savage  country 
there  must  be  great  latitude,  but  it  is  still  necessary 
in  all  cases  where  individual  liberty  is  involved,  that 
this  authority  be  distinctly  regular  and  clearly  de- 
fined. 


1 62  The  Congo 

It  has  been  seen  that  we  have  in  the  course  of  this 
Report,  understanding  in  the  widest  sense  the  mis- 
sion with  which  we  were  charged,  passed  through 
the  sieve  of  criticism  the  entire  administration  of  the 
Free  State.  We  have  pointed  out,  without  shield- 
ing any,  all  of  the  abuses  which  have  come  under 
our  observation.  But  we  are  not  lulled  by  the  illu- 
sion that  we  shall  see  those  who  read  our  Report 
placed  in  the  position  to  appreciate  in  a  sane  and 
impartial  manner  the  Congolese  work.  To  reach 
that  result,  a  proper  perspective  is  necessary.  Afri- 
can affairs  can  be  correctly  appreciated  only  when 
they  are  seen,  one  might  almost  say,  when  they  are 
lived.  Examined  from  a  European  point  of  view 
a  large  number  of  facts  which  we  have  seen  will 
assume  a  character  which  they  cannot  have  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  have  been  their  witnesses. 

It  is  thus  that  the  distinguished  judges,  from 
many  of  whom  we  have  had  the  most  valuable  assist- 
ance in  our  search  for  truth,  told  us  that  according 
to  their  opinion  the  retention  of  women  as  hostages 
at  the  posts  was  of  all  the  means  of  coercion,  the 
most  gentle,  the  most  humane,  the  most  efficacious 
and  the  most  in  keeping  with  the  native  customs; 
although  they  did  not  deny  that  judged  at  a  dis- 
tance this  measure  would  have  the  character  of  a 
crying  iniquity. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Code,  a  juridical  structure 
so  rapidly  built,  which  aroused  a  cry  of  admiration 
from  a  critic  impartial  and  even  severe,  and  which 


Justice  163 

perhaps  has  only  the  fault  of  being  theoretically  too 
perfect,  this  Code,  let  us  say,  does  not  always  suffi- 
ciently regard  the  condition  of  the  country  and  the 
people  which  it  is  called  upon  to  govern.  It  should 
be  always  borne  in  mind  that  in  spite  of  the  progress 
achieved,  the  natives  of  thfe  Congo  are  still  in  a 
large  measure  savages.  Twenty  centuries  were  nec- 
essary to  create  from  Gaul,  of  the  time  of  Caesar, 
the  France  and  Belgium  of  to-day  and  if  our  ances- 
tors were,  in  the  eyes  of  the  conquering  Romans, 
barbarians,  one  can,  we  think,  say  that  they  were 
civilised  people  in  comparison  with  the  inhabitants 
of  the  immense  territory  of  the  Free  State  at  the 
moment  of  its  constitution. 

How  should  one  expect  that  a  code  of  laws  as 
European  as  that  of  the  Congo  should  not  fre- 
quently meet  in  its  application  insurmountable  ob- 
stacles? Hence  arises  a  contradiction  between  the 
law  and  the  fact ;  hence  come  those  violations  which 
the  courts  punish  while  granting  to  the  offenders 
the  benefits  of  extenuating  circumstances. 

The  Court  of  Appeals,  notably,  has  during  the 
past  years  pronounced  some  decisions  of  remarkable 
severity,  but  it  has  always  borne  in  mind  the  diffi- 
culties which  have  surrounded  the  Europeans.  In 
order  to  live,  to  develop  itself,  the  State  found  it- 
self face  to  face  with  the  necessity  to  exploit  the 
natural  wealth  of  the  soil  and  the  only  available 
labour  at  its  disposal  was  the  native  unused  to 
work;  the  agents  enervated  by  a  terrible  climate. 


1 64  The  Congo 

always  debilitating  and  often  fatal,  are  isolated  in 
the  midst  of  a  savage  population;  and  the  life  of 
each  day  presents  to  them  nothing  but  demoralising 
spectacles.  They  left  Europe  filled  with  respect 
for  human  life  and  they  soon  see  in  the  barbarous 
circle  into  which  they  are  transplanted,  that  this  has 
no  value.  They  were  taught  from  infancy  to  love 
one's  neighbour  and  they  note  amongst  the  savages 
around  them  an  absolute  ignorance  of  the  sentiment 
called  charity  —  the  negro,  in  fact,  can  not  realise 
that  a  thing  can  be  done  except  from  fear  or  hope 
of  personal  gain;  they  are  witnesses  in  the  villages 
of  the  miserable  plight  of  the  weak  and  the  infirm 
upon  whom  the  chiefs  and  head  men  always  let  fall 
the  heaviest  burdens ;  they  see  the  women  degraded 
to  the  condition  of  beasts  of  burden,  labouring  with- 
out interruption  and  performing  every  task.  Those 
who  have  had  this  spectacle  before  their  eyes  un- 
derstand, but  do  not  condone,  the  ill-treatment,  even 
the  acts  of  brutality  of  the  white  man  towards  the 
native  who  leaves  the  post  without  food  or  towards 
the  recalcitrant  delinquent  whom  he  accuses  of  in- 
dolence or  ill-will,  though  the  difficulties  of  the  rub- 
ber harvest  are  seldom  appreciated  and  the  black 
man's  aversion  to  labour  is  rarely  understood. 

The  Free  State  could  have,  if  it  wished,  avoided 
a  large  part  of  the  abuses  which  we  have  pointed 
out  for  almost  all  had,  as  their  primal  cause,  the  dif- 
ficulty of  securing  work  from  the  negro.  It  would 
have  sufficed  —  imitating  the  example  of  many  col- 


Justice  165 

onising  governments  —  to  authorise  the  free  entry 
of  alcohol  into  its  territory.  Alcohol  —  facts  abun- 
dantly prove  it  —  would  soon  have  become  for  the 
native  an  imperative  necessity,  and  to  satisfy  it  he 
would  have  learned  how  to  conquer  his  natural  indo- 
lence. If  the  remuneration  granted  to  the  workmen 
had  been,  instead  of  goods  or  other  useful  articles, 
**  trade  alcohol,"  one  would  soon  have  seen  the 
chiefs  and  head  men  of  every  village  driving  to 
work  with  all  possible  energy  all  those  over  whom 
they  had  authority. 

God  forbid  that  we  should  think  of  suggesting 
the  measure  which  would  have  as  a  fatal  conse- 
quence the  demoralisation  of  an  entire  race  in  a  few 
years.  We  think,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  exclusion 
of  alcohol  from  the  Congo  is  together  with  the  sup- 
pression of  slavery  the  greatest  title  of  glory  to 
the  Free  State.  Humanity  will  always  be  grateful 
to  it  for  having  refused  to  use  this  powerful  lever  to 
which  others  have  had  recourse,  and  thus  turned 
from  Africa  a  scourge  more  terrible  and  more  de- 
structive than  the  slave  trade.  The  Free  State, 
by  the  wonderful  things  it  has  accomplished  in 
twenty  years,  gives  the  public  the  opportunity, 
we  might  almost  say  the  right,  to  show  itself  ex- 
acting. In  all  events,  it  owes  it  to  itself  to  intro- 
duce as  soon  as  possible  the  reforms  which  we  have 
cited,  many  of  which  are  most  urgent  and  can  be 
accomplished  without  involving  new  expense.  We 
have  in  view  especially  the  large  and  liberal  inter- 


i66  The  Cong-o 

pretation  and  application  of  the  laws  regarding  the 
holding  of  real  estate,  the  effective  enforcement  of 
the  law  limiting  to  forty  hours  per  month  the  pres- 
tation of  work,  the  suppression  of  the  system  of 
sentries,  the  permission  for  the  capitas  to  carry  arms, 
the  revocation  from  the  commercial  companies  of 
the  right  to  exercise  coercion,  the  regulation  of  mili- 
tary expeditions  and  the  freedom  of  the  public  pros- 
ecutor from  administrative  control. 

Other  reforms  though  important,  we  can  even  say 
essential,  are,  on  the  contrary,  of  a  nature  to  increase 
the  State  expenses,  the  equilibrium  of  whose  budget 
is  retained  with  difficulty. 

This  consideration  does  not  cause  the  Commis- 
sion to  hesitate,  although,  thinking  always  of  the 
interests  of  the  natives,  it  could  never  neglect  to 
look  at  the  practical  side  of  the  suggestion  which  it 
found  itself  called  upon  to  make. 

The  Free  State  was  created,  with  the  consent  of 
the  entire  world,  twenty  years  ago,  by  a  single  will 
which,  as  is  well-known,  allied  to  itself  the  services 
of  Stanley  in  the  object  of  opening  central  Africa 
to  civilisation  and  which  alone,  without  the  aid  of 
any  one,  bore  the  entire  expense  of  its  establish- 
ment. Its  origin  came  from  the  acquiescence  of  the 
native  chiefs  and  the  personal  efforts  of  its  creator. 

The  Powers  have  recognised  its  sovereign  exist- 
ence, but  without  contributing  either  to  the  work  in 
view  or  to  its  development,  and  naturally  without 
any    idea    of    assistance    or    of    guardianship  —  a 


Justice  167 

notion  incompatible  with  the  title  Independent  or 
Free  which  was  given  to  the  State. 

For  several  years  the  young  State  lived  solely 
upon  the  grants  made  by  its  founder.  Then  Bel- 
gium lent  a  generous  aid,  and  now  that  its  organisa- 
tion has  assumed  considerable  importance,  it  can 
rely  upon  its  own  resources. 

This  is,  we  think,  an  exceptional  situation  which 
differs  essentially  from  that  of  the  colonies,  properly 
so  called,  in  Africa  or  elsewhere,  and  one  which 
should  be  kept  in  mind. 

The  State  will  be  able  to  carry  out  progressively 
the  reforms  we  propose.  They  will  occasion  an  in- 
crease in  expenditures ;  but  it  would  fail  in  the  dis- 
charge of  its  duty  if,  from  the  present  moment,  it 
did  not  employ  every  available  means  to  realise  the 
wishes  formulated  in  this  Report  and  which,  we  re- 
peat, are  inspired  by  the  interests  of  the  native  popu- 
lation. 

Please  accept,  Mr.  Secretary  of  State,  the  assur- 
ance of  our  high  consideration. 

President  of  the  Commission  of  Enquiry : 

Edmond  Janssens. 
Commissioners : 
GiAcoMO  Nisco,      E.  DE  Schumacher. 

Secretary :  Translator : 

V.  Denyn.      Henri  Gregoire. 

Brussels,  October  30,  1905. 


INSTITUTION  OF  A  COMMITTEE 


APPOINTMENTS 

Leopold  II.,  King  of  the  Belgians 
Sovereign  of  the  Congo  Free  State 

To  whom  these  presents  may  come,  greeting: 
Upon  the  proposition  of  Our  Secretary  of  State, 
We  have  decreed  and  do  decree : 

Article  First 

There  is  constituted  a  Committee  instructed  to 
study  the  conclusions  of  the  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sion of  Enquiry,  to  formulate  the  suggestions  which 
they  necessitate  and  to  investigate  the  practical 
means  for  realising  the  same. 

Article  Second 

The  following  shall  be  members  of  this   Com- 
mittee : 
President :  Van  Maldeghem,  A.,  Vice-President  of 

the  Supreme  Court  of  Belgium. 
169 


lyo  The  Congo 

Members : 
Arnold,  N.,  Director  General  in  the  Department 

of  Finance. 
Chenot,  L.,  District  Commissioner. 
Davignon,  H.,  Former  Senator,  Member  of  the 

House  of  Representatives. 
DE  CuvELiER,  Chevalier,  A.,   Secretary  General 

in  the  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
DE  Hemptinne,  J.,  President  of  the  Board  of 

Directors  of  the  Kasai  Company. 
Droogmans,  H.,  Secretary  General  in  the  De- 
partment of  Finance. 
Five,,    G.,    Colonel,    Commandant   2d   Regiment 

Horse  Guards. 
GoHR,  A.,  Director  in  the  Department  of  Justice 

of  the  Congo. 
Janssens,  E.,  Attorney  General  of  the  Supreme 

Court  of  Belgium. 
LiEBRECHTS,  Ch.,  Secretary  General  Department 

of  the  Interior. 
MoLS,  A.,  Manufacturer. 
Nys,  E.,  Member  Court  of  Appeals,  Member  of 

the  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration. 
ToMBEUR,    C,    Captain,    Commandant    General 

Staff,  District  Commissioner. 
Article  Third 
Our  Secretary  of  State  is  charged  with  the  exe- 
::ution  of  this  Decree. 

LEOPOLD. 
Done  at  Brussels,  October  31,  1905. 


Appointments  1 7 1 

By  the  King  Sovereign: 

In  the  name  of  the  Secretary  of  State: 

Chevalier  de  Cuvelier, 
H.  Droogmans, 

LlEBRECHTS, 

Secretaries  General. 


THE     STORY     OF    THE     CONGO 

FREE    STATE 

Social,  Political,  and  Economic  Aspects  of  the  Belgian 
System  of  Government  in  Central  Africa 


By  HENRY   WELLINGTON    WACK,  F.R.G.S. 

(Member  of  New  York  Bar)  Author  "Romance  of 
Victor  Hugo  and  Juliette  Drouet.'*  "  In  Thamesland." 
Royal  Octavo.  Beautifully  bound.  With  125  illus- 
trations. 650  pages  and  two  maps.  Net,  $3.50 
(by  mail,  $3.75.) 

Americans  cannot  fail  to  be  interested  in  the  true  story  of 
the  Congo,  the  romance  and  the  tragedy  of  its  conception,  and 
its  marvellous  development. 

Mr.  Wack  is  an  American  citizen,  an  independent  man, 
deeply  read  and  widely  travelled,  who  relates  what  he  has  seen, 
and  his  work  gives  evidence  of  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
Congolese  affairs. 

The  book  is  literally  packed  with  matter  of  interest  to  the 
geographer,  ethnologist,  trader,  politician,  and  humanitarian. 
The  strange  habits  and  customs  of  the  various  native  races 
—  their  cannibalism,  fetishism,  polygamy,  etc.;  —  the  course 
and  tributaries  of  the  magnificent  Congo  River;  the  illimit- 
able Central  African  forest,  with  its  treasures  of  rubber  and 
timber;  the  possibilities  of  the  country  as  a  field  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  and  cotton;  its  gold  and  dia- 
mond deposits;  the  State  laws;  the  scope  for  American  energy 
and  capital;  the  overthrow  and  repression  of  slavery  and 
cannibalism,  are  all  discussed  in  a  calm,  judicial  manner,  re- 
freshing at  this  epoch  of  heated  controversy.  To  the  contro- 
versy whether  the  rule  of  King  Leopold  uplifts  and  protects, 
or  debases  and  oppresses,  the  natives  of  the  Congo  State,  as 
is  variously  asserted,  Mr.  Wack's  book  is  by  far  the  most 
important  contribution  yet  made. 

Send  for  illustrated  descriptive  circular, 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  LONDON 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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U.  C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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QUESTIONS  OF   THE  DAY. 


AUTHOR  INDEX  TO  THE 


J' 


Atkinson, 
Baker,  C.  ^ 
Cowles,  J.  I 
Crookes,  W  j^^ 
Dos  Passos, 
Dugdale,  R 
Ehrich,  L.  : 

[Tr&tt,  J.  I 

Foulice,  W. 
Garalner,  C 
Gore,  J.  H. . 


*IES. 


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_  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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